Naperville Central boys swimming narrowly defeats Naperville North

It’s Senior Night for Naperville North boys swimming as they host the Naperville Central Redhawks in a DVC matchup. The Huskies look to bounce back after falling to Waubonsie Valley last week and try to finish their final home meet with a win against their crosstown rivals. Naperville Central looks for a third straight win after defeating Metea and Waubonsie. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.

Huskies and Redhawks take Wins in a pair of 200-yard races

Let’s begin with the 200-yard free. This battle is close between Huskies Max Fedorovskiy, Kevin Chen, and Redhawk Grant James. It was tight throughout the race between those three, but on the final lap, North’s Fedorovskiy pulls away to take first with a time of 1:49.80. Chen secures second, and Central’s James earns third place.

Next, we go to the 200-yard IM, where Redhawk AJ Landorf gets off to a great start here in lane four. Fellow Redhawk Leo Zhang is in lane two, and Huskie Ryan Chen is in lane three. It was close halfway through the race, but in the end, Central’s Landorf and Zhang pulled ahead to take first and second. Landorf’s time is 2:04.43 while Zhang finished three seconds behind, and Chen of Naperville North takes third place at 2:11.46.

Naperville North responds with a strong performance in the 50-yard freestyle by Mason Hofmann. It was a tight race between Hofmann in lane five and Naperville Central’s James Behrend in lane four. As we go down the stretch, Hofmann just narrowly beats Behrend with a time of 22.58 to take the 50-yard freestyle for the blue and orange.

Robert Hargrove wins individual event and helps the team in the 200-yard freestyle

We got the 100-yard butterfly underway, and we got a battle in the pool between North and Central. In lane five Allen Xu takes a slim lead over Redhawk Robert Hargrove in lane four. However, as we get close to the finish line Hargrove just edges past Xu to take the top spot with a time of 55.47 seconds, beating out Xu, who finishes just .12 seconds behind!

Up next is the 200-yard freestyle, with three North teams and two Central teams competing. Early on in the race, it is a close one as both teams try to push for the early lead. As we go halfway through the race, the Huskies team of Jackson Falk, Sam Rees, Jacob Podkasik, and Xu begins to pull away from the Redhawk team of Hargrove, Keanu Yoshikawa, Vincent Antonietti, and Behrend. The Redhawks rally late, but the Huskies hold on for the win.

Naperville Central boys swimming defeats Naperville North

We got two more races to go, with the 100-yard breaststroke up next. This race was close from the start as Central’s Hargrove and North’s Hofmann battle for the top spot. As we go towards the end, it’s the senior Hofmann of the Huskies who defeats Hargrove with a time of 59.69.

In the final race of the night, we got the 400-yard relay. The Huskies push to close out Senior Night with a win with their top relay team Kevin Chen, Fedorovskiy, Jack Reif, and Hofmann in lane five over Central’s top relay team of Yoshikawa, George Zenow, Behrend, and Landorf. The Huskies begin to pull away halfway and manage to hang on to win the relay, but the Redhawks take the meet victory! The Redhawks just edged past North, by a a score of 103-99 to claim their third straight DVC win.