By Bobby Narang
Oswego High School’s Austin Millard judged his performance in Saturday’s Mustang swim meet at Metea Valley in Aurora with a harsh eye.
Millard’s focus was on building for the future. More specifically, the IHSA State swimming meet at Evanston High School at the end of the month.
“I would’ve liked to go faster in the 500-yard (freestyle), for I did all right,” Millard said. “When I get ahead, I have to keep staying ahead, and extend it further and further. I can’t settle back. I would’ve liked to also go out faster in the 200 (freestyle).
Still, Millard managed to set the tone for a run to the State meet with a solid performance Saturday.
Plainfield had a strong showing to lead the field and place first in the 13-team event with 422.5 points. Oswego relied on several strong individual events to notch second place with 356 points. Neuqua Valley claimed third place, 339; Naperville North finished fourth, 324; and Metea Valley walked away with fifth, 252. South Elgin snared sixth with 229; Waubonsie Valley registered in seventh, 220; and Benet Academy took eighth, 212.
Millard, who competed in four events, posted a first-place time of 4:47.74 in the 500-yard freestyle and with a second-place time of 1:43.13 in the 200 freestyle.
Teammate Bobby Peterson had a strong outing, highlighted by a first-place showing in the 100-yard butterfly, 52.39.
“This is our third invite of the season, so we’ve finished first and got two second-places,” Oswego head coach Deryl Leubner said. “It’s setting us up pretty well for (Southwest Prairie) Conference, which is against Plainfield. We’re looking forward to that next week. Bobby Peterson did phenomenal, came out of the blue to finish close to a State cut. Hopefully by sectionals (February 22), he will be below a State cut.”
Neuqua Valley was sparked by one of the best all-around showings in the three-hour meet. Connor Boyle had a sterling effort, notching first place in the 100 with 45.79 and the 200 with 1:42.37 in freestyle swims.
Naperville North’s Grant Bochenski snagged first place in the 100 backstroke in a time of 52.07. Teammate Cole McBride took second earlier in the meet in diving with 366.60. Senior Owen Jacobs finished second in the 50 free to go with a fourth place in the 100 breaststroke.
“I think we did pretty good, starting to feel the end of the season because our energy is growing and we’re starting to get a lot better times,” Jacobs said. “I think this will help our confidence.”
Metea Valley head coach Mark Jager praised the effort of freshman Jaeddan Gamila, who earned third place in the 100 butterfly with 53.70.
“(Jaeddan) had a really good performance,” Jager said. “Our relays performed well, and overall as a team we performed well. “For us, at most invitationals that we go to, we are in the middle of the pack. We’re not super concerned where we finish at these type of invites, but we’re really looking at this time of year is consistency and tuning up some of those last-minute things. We’re pretty happy with how we did today.”