Boys Swimming: Barrington gearing up to host MSL conference meet

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Darien, IL - Saturday, January 7, 2012: Barrington's Kyle Ujiiye competes in the 400 IM during the Hinsdale South College Events Swim Meet. | Steve Johnston~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 11, 2012 8:23AM

The MSL boys swimming meet will provide Barrington a chance to repeat as league champions — and to avenge its only dual-meet loss of the season to Conant.

However, the Broncos enter the meet, which they will host Friday and Saturday, with other goals in mind.

“Conant is the strength of the MSL right now, and hopefully we can be competitive with them,” said Barrington head coach John Valentine, who said he also expects strong showings by Fremd and Palatine. “While it would be nice to be conference champs, our training is geared more toward the sectional and state meet.”

Barrington will compete at the loaded Stevenson Sectional on Feb. 18, and its performance will determine how many Broncos reach the IHSA state meet, Feb. 24-25 at Evanston.

Some swimmers gear all their training toward sectional. But this season, the Broncos are hoping to take a step forward. For many Barrington swimmers, that means heavy training through the sectional, and tapering ahead of State.

The plan is designed to get as many swimmers as possible into the state finals on the second day.

With that in mind, there has been no let-up in training ahead of the conference meet. The Broncos’ schedule still has them swimming twice a day, five days a week.

Barrington has had ample time to train since it last competed against Hoffman Estates on Jan. 26. Valentine said there haven’t been many time-drops lately, but that’s to be expected.

“The team as a whole has progressed, but nobody has dropped significant amounts of time,” Valentine said. “At this point in the season, they are all doing 12,000-plus yards a day, five days a week. They are all tired right now.”

Despite heavy training — and tired muscles — Barrington stars such as junior Jack Strauss, sophomore Connor Kobida and senior Tom Clement are being counted on to turn in strong performances in the swimming portion of the conference meet, which begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Barrington also is expecting big things from senior divers Nolan Presmyk and Blane Stahl in the diving portion of the meet, 6 p.m. Friday.

In the Stevenson Sectional, Barrington will join MSL rivals Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Fremd, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg, as well as Stevenson and Lake Zurich from the North Suburban.

Barrington will be looking to win races and make state-meet cuts. Valentine said he didn’t want to speculate how many Broncos swimmers and divers might make state.

“We just want to get as many kids into the state meet as possible,” he said. “At the same time, the kids who make the state meet, we want them to continue to peak at the state meet. The class of our sectional will be Stevenson. We saw them at the Lake County Invite earlier this year and they blew everybody away. Everyone (at the sectional) will be chasing Stevenson.”