And so it begins.

The Chesterton Boys Swim team opened defense of its back-to-back State Championships in the Prelims of the LaPorte Sectional Thursday just like they wanted too.

“I think we had a great start to the Sectional,” Chesterton coach Kevin Kinel said. “Our depth was tremendous today. We had some great time drops for our second and third line kids.”

And there was no shortage of kids for Kinel to talk about.

“Nick Borzych in his Fly had a crazy drop,” Kinel said. “Nick Brahos dropped three seconds in the IM and two seconds in the 100 Back. Brian Mabry went 23.4 and then (dropped) almost three seconds in the 100 Free to final.

“Spencer Wright went from 5:29 to 5:17 in the 500 Free. Collin Ringas going from a 8 high to 6 low in the breaststroke. Alex Corrente in the 100 Fly and Chris McGue in the 500 Free as well.”

The surprise of the night came in the 500 Free where three-time State Champion in the 100 Fly, Kyle Whitaker took the top seed for Saturday’s Final with a Sectional Record time of 4:40.54.

“Kyle’s Kyle,” Kinel said. “It’s funny because that was kind of his goal to swim just well enough to break the record. He needs to swim it a few times before he really goes after it.

“He’s been wanting to swim it, but for the good of the team, we put him somewhere else. We’ll see if it’s the right decision.

“The State Record is 4:25 and he’s been 4:21 in his life. The national record is about 4:16 and we’ll see if he can get it.”

The Trojans took top honors in all three relays and also got No. 1 seed performances from Taylor Zakhar (200 Free), Whitaker (200 IM) and Tyler Fozkos (50 Free, 100 Free).

“Our kids that are looking at State kind of swam through tonight,” Kinel said. “They’ll arrive on Saturday ready to go. I’m sure of that. We just have to get them to get the job done on Saturday.”

200 Medley Relay – 1. Chesterton, 1:39.61; 2. Valparaiso, 1:41.60; 3. Michigan City, 1:42.27; 4. Portage, 1:44.61; 5. Merrillville, 1:49.70; 6. Wheeler, 1:55.09.

200 Free – 1. Taylor Zakhar (C), 1:49.31; 2. Christopher Klimczak (L), 1:50.28; 3. Ryan Byers (MC), 1:51.20; 4. Nate Schuster (C), 1:51.41; 5. Chris McGue (C), 1:53.61; 6. Aaron Dobben (L), 1:54.23.

200 IM – 1. Kyle Whitaker (C), 1:55.67; 2. Cameron Miller (MC), 1:57.15; 3. Dion Low (V), 1:57.41; 4. Austin Butcher (L), 2:02.60; 5. Nick Brahos (C), 2:03.69; 6. Conner Sunday (V), 2:06.23.

50 Free – 1. Tyler Fozkos (C), 21.82; 2. John Bednar (V), 22.46; 3. Eric Leonard (H), 22.90; 4. Steve Schnell (W), 22.99; 5. Joe Gerard (C), 23.21; 6. Brian Mabry (C), 23.41.

100 Fly – 1. Chris Schreier (P), 52.13; 2. Christopher Klimczak (L), 55.60; 3. Nick Borzych (C), 56.09; 4. Nate Schuster (C), 57.01; 5. Dillon Radosevich (V), 57.06; 6. Alex Schreier (P), 57.56.

100 Free – 1. Tyler Fozkos (C), 48.42; 2. John Bednar (V), 49.74; 3. Joe Gerard (C), 51.78; 4. Brian Mabry (C), 51.93; 5. Jacob Caddick (M), 51.97; 6. Alexander Porucznik (V), 52.27.

500 Free – 1. Kyle Whitaker (C), 4:40.54 (SECTIONAL RECORD); 2. Chris McGue (C), 5:03.09; 3. Mathew Cain (V), 5:07.28; 4. Aaron Dobben (L), 5:09.92; 5. Spencer Wright (C), 5:17.22; 6. Evan Dominguez (P), 5:19.22.

200 Free Relay – 1. Chesterton, 1:30.71; 2. Valparaiso, 1:30.76; 3. Michigan City, 1:34.05; 4. Portage, 1:36.75; 5. Wheeler, 1:37.77; 6. Hobart, 1:38.10.

100 Back – 1. Chris Schreier (P), 54.26; 2. Austin Butcher (L), 55.57; 3. Nick Brahos (C), 55.66; 4. Alexander Porucznik (V), 55.95; 5. Mathew Cain (V), 55.98; 6. Ryan Byers (MC), 57.86.

100 Breast – 1. Cameron Miller (MC), 59.31; 2. Dion Low (V), 59.83; 3. Nathan Quinlan (MC), 1;02.86; 4. Matt Rosiecki (C), 1:03.11; 5. Jacob Caddick (M), 1;03.49; 6. Robert Ayres (P), 1:04.67.

400 Free Relay – 1. Chesterton, 3:22.81; 2. Portage, 3:29.01; 3. LaPorte, 3:31.66; 4. Valparaiso, 3:35.23; 5. Merrillville, 3:37.08; 6. Michigan City, 3:40.53.

200 Medley Relay – 1. LaPorte, 1:56.26; 2. Hobart, 2:02.20; 3. Knox, 2:04.11; 4. Gary West Side, 2:24.76.

200 Free – 1. Evan Dominguez (P), 1:56.14; 2. Jeffery Joll (V), 1:59.66; 3. Garrett Piers (P), 2:01.06; 4. Tyler Leeth (V), 2:01.21; 5. Kevin Elkins (P), 2:04.84; 6. Rahul Patel (V), 2:05.48.

200 IM – 1. Alex Schreier (P), 2:06.66; 2. Nathan Quinlan (MC), 2:06.90; 3. Matthew Quinlan (MC), 2:10.32; 4. Salvador Mujica (C), 2:12.49; 5. Christopher Blue (V), 2:13.48; 6. Sean Parpart (P), 2:16.78.

50 Free – 1. Benjamin Keller (V), 23.74; 2. Kyle Plummer (MC), 23.95; 3. Blake Buczek (W), 24.07; 4. Cole Ozbolt (P), 24.09; 5. Kendrick Lo (P), 24.38; 6. Dustin Rivich (MC), 24.50.

100 Fly – 1. Conner Sunday (V), 57.96; 2. Eric Leonard (H), 58.45; 3. Alex Corrente (C), 59.00; 4. Alexander Gergely (V), 59.39; 5. Colin Burke (M), 59.67; 6. Sean Parpart (P), 1:01.97.

100 Free – 1. Steve Schnell (W), 52.45; 2. Kendrick Lo (P), 53.29; 3. Benjamin Keller (V), 53.32; 4. Michael Moore (MC), 53.48; 5. Michael Shaw (L), 54.28; 6. Craig Courteau (H), 54.99.

500 Free – 1. Christopher Blue (V), 5:19.45; 2. Garrett Piers (P), 5:22.71; 3. Kyle Plummer (MC), 5:25.00; 4. Tyler Leeth (V), 5:27.68; 5. Joshua Jones (L), 5:43.97; 6. Kevin Elkins (P), 5:46.51.

200 Free Relay – 1. LaPorte, 1:38.35; 2. Merrillville, 1:43.33; 3. Knox, 1:55.33; 4. Gary West Side, 2:16.25.

100 Back – 1. Nick Borzych (C), 58.04; 2. Cole Ozbolt (P), 59.27; 3. Colin Burke (M), 59.90; 4. Michael Moore (MC), 1:00.62; 5. Jeffery Joll (V), 1:01.31; 6. Cody Olson (C), 1:02.22.

100 Breast – 1. Matthew Quinlan (MC), 1:04.77; 2. Dillon Radosevich (V), 1:04.93; 3. Collin Ringas (C), 1:06.13; 4. Zachary Haller (L), 1:06.70; 5. Salvador Mujica (C), 1:08.79; 6. Mark Memsic (V), 1:10.18.

400 Free Relay – 1. Wheeler, 3:53.12; 2. Hobart, 3:55.00; 3. Knox, 4:38.33.

Posted 2/19/2010