Lake Forest High School boys swim coach Cindy Dell is not going to get ahead of herself.
Instead, she’s taking it one “boulder’’ at a time.
“We have 14 meets this season, and each one is a boulder,” Dell said. “We’re removing them one at a time.
“You can’t think ahead,” she added. “What good does that do?”
Still, the future possibilities of this Lake Forest squad?
Rock solid.
The Scouts did their share of rockin’ and rollin’ at the Lake County Invite at Stevenson on Dec. 20. Highlighted by their fab four — swimmers Dylan Boyd, Michael LeMay, Symen Ooms, Daniel Smith — and their dynamic duo — divers Alexander Streightiff and John-Michael Diveris — they won the nine-team meet by a comfortable 45 points.
On the strength of eight first-place finishes, Lake Forest finished with a score 267.50. The host Patriots were second with 232.50 points.
“This meet was nice. Real impressive,” said Dell.
Lake Forest’s slogan this season is: 1 Team, 1 Dream.
Streightiff and Diveris got things started by going 1-2 in the morning session. The judges loved them.
The gap between the two divers?
Razor thin.
Steightiff’s score was 468.35. Diveris finished with a 467.20.
“They were amazing,” said Dell. “They set the tone.”
Boyd and Ooms kept the momentum going. Boyd took first in event No. 3 (200 free, 1:41.21) and event No. 6 (100 butterfly, 51.31), while Ooms sprinted to wins in the event No. 5 (50 free, 21.37) and event No. 7 (100 free, 48.03).
Then, it was time to team up. Boyd and Ooms joined forces with LeMay and Smith to win the 200 free relay (1:28.77) and the 400 free relay (3:13.37).
Boyd’s victory in the 200 free was extra special. He rallied late to beat Libertyville’s top star Matt Harrington (1:41.85).
Smith, meanwhile, earned a first-place medal in the 100 backstroke (52.21), while he took runner-up honors behind Ooms in the 100 free (48.35).
LeMay’s day also included a second-place finish in the 200 IM (2:03.11) and a third-place showing in the 100 fly (54.13).
Dell also was pleased with Scott Bennatan (6th in 200 free; 7th in 500 free); Michael Hambleton (6th in 500 free); Spencer Moore (10th, 500 free; 10th, 100 back), Nico Demet (7th, 100 back; 11th, 100 fly) and Alex Ortiz (11th, 100 breaststroke).
Highland Park
Nothing swims like a Tran.
Highland Park junior Allen Tran was on the top of his game in the 100 breaststroke at Saturday’s Lake County Meet.
He won the race going away (59.80). The runner-up was Barrington’s Colin Cross (1:02.26).
“He’s found a new level of training,” said HP head coach Tim Sirois. “He’s doing race pace training. And that’s how he swam today.”
Tran was one of the workhorses in the HP lineup. Minutes after winning event No. 11, he came back to anchor the free relay. He teamed up with Levy Nathan, Eddie Kochman and Alex Grigorovich and took fourth (3:25.21) in the meet’s finale.
That same foursome ended up sixth in the 200 free relay (1:32.99), while Tran also earned a sixth-place medal in the 200 IM (2:07.53).
Nathan turned in a solid all-around effort. He was fourth in the 500 free (4:53.75) and fifth in the 200 free (1:49.89).
Kochman placed sixth in the 50 free (23.12) and seventh in the 100 free (51.13), while Grigorovich was 10th in the 100 free and 11th in the 200 free.
Other contributors included Mark Fox in diving (7th, 298.45), Jason Fox in the 100 back (8th, 59.69) and Jack Burson in the 200 IM (12th).
