Not much could slow down Matt Grevers and the Lake Forest swimmers Friday.
The Scouts junior came close to setting two individual freestyle records and had blazing swims in anchoring two freestyle relays at the boys state championships preliminaries at Evanston.
Grevers, the defending state 100-yard freestyle champion, just missed breaking his 2001 time of 44.40 seconds when he swam a 44.67. He was also tops in the 50 freestyle in 20.49.
“I pretty well expected to do exactly what I went,” said Grevers, who just missed the state record of 20.26 in the 50 and later had a personal best 19.7-second 50-yard split in anchoring a first-place 200 freestyle relay. “I’m very pleased with it and hope that we do better tomorrow.”
Grevers wasn’t necessarily looking for records Friday.
“Today’s not a records day,” he said. “Today’s for getting into tomorrow.”
Lake Forest is in a strong position to grab a state trophy Saturday after qualifying two relays and six individuals for the finals, more than any other school.
“I’m proud of the way all of our boys raced,” said Lake Forest coach Lea Maurer. “They’re perfectionists, and they’re hopeful that tomorrow will be [even] better.
“And I think it will be.”
Lake Forest also advanced a second-place 400 freestyle relay group into Saturday’s top-six championship finals. Individual qualifiers included juniors Sammy Kintz and David Ashley, third and sixth, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle; and David Ashley, fifth in the 500 freestyle. Kintz was also third in the 100-yard freestyle.
Naperville Central also is expected to make a run at the title after qualifying all three relays, including a first-place 200 medley group. The Redhawks also advanced two individuals into the championship finals.
Other top trophy contenders are St. Charles East, which won the 400-yard freestyle relay and is represented in six championship finals; Hinsdale Central, which had a first from senior Stephen Connor in the 100 butterfly among five championship qualifiers; and Stevenson, with six entries in the finals.
“[Saturday’s] going to be a war,” Maurer said. “The meet is [often] won or lost on Friday, but it looks like tomorrow is a rare occasion where the meet is going to be won or lost.”
