C-G shows heart

Cary-Grove's Edward Griswold swims the 500-yard freestyle during Friday's meet against Dundee Crown/Jacobs at the YMCA in Crystal Lake. Griswold won the event in 5:04.86, helping the Trojans to a 93-70 victory. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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CRYSTAL LAKE – After losing two team captains and state qualifiers in Brent Curtis and Michael Kinross to graduation last spring, Cary-Grove boys swimming coach Jim Andriakos was unsure of how his Trojans would respond to a change in leadership.

Friday’s 93-70 dual meet victory against the Jacobs/Dundee-Crown co-op on senior night helped put that uncertainty to rest.

“What I saw today was a lot of initiative from our seniors, and I was both excited and a little surprised to see so much of it,” Andriakos said. “I already know we have phenomenal talent on this team, and now I’m beginning to see we have a lot of heart, too.”

“It takes strong leadership to keep a team afloat and motivated when the only competition you have on a daily basis is in practice,” said Trojans coach Jim Andriakos.

The Trojans have competed in only three meets this season, including its previous meet Dec. 15 against Hoffman Estates, a 124-56 victory. Recent practices have been canceled because of the weather, further taking away from the team’s time in the pool.

“We weren’t exactly sure how well we were going to compete today,” senior Christian Weber said. “Jacobs/Dundee-Crown has always been a strong team in the past, and they are one of the teams we will be battling against for a conference title.

“We’re hopeful we can compete at a high level every day and have a good chance at winning the conference.”

The Fox Valley Conference does not have enough teams for an official conference meet, but the McHenry Invitational on Feb. 13 serves that purpose, with teams from C-G, Jacobs/D-C, Woodstock and McHenry competing, as well as individuals from other FVC schools.

Weber won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.11 seconds and was the anchor of the Trojans’ 400 freestyle relay team (Michael Hamann, Andrew Brierton, Edward Griswold and Weber) that closed out C-G’s victory.

Griswold, also a senior, won the 200 freestyle (1:52.82) and the 500 freestyle (5:05.86). Hamann won the 200 individual medley (2:06.91), and Conor Cornelius won the 100 backstroke (1:00.15).

Andriakos believes the Trojans are a deeper team than in past years.

“We lost Kinross and Curtis, but we also lost a lot of our breaststrokers,” Andriakos said. “We’re trying to rebuild our breaststroking core, but we’re a lot deeper in the butterfly, the backstroke, and in distance events.

“We may not have the one-two punch to go to state like we did last year, but I think on a sectional meet or a dual meet level, we’re a lot tougher.”

For Jacobs/Dundee-Crown, Alex Elston won the 50 freestyle (23.61) and the 100 butterfly (54.12), and John Lust won the 100 breaststroke (1:07.51).

The team of Lust, Ryan Krug, Alec Schmidt and Elston won the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:34.37.

“It was a good effort from the team,” Jacobs/Dundee-Crown coach Rich Andresen said. “We’re lacking in numbers and don’t have as many swimmers, so it’s a little bit difficult to compete against a team like the Trojans.

“We’ve had two great weeks of practice over winter break, and it showed today. We had some nice time drops, and the kids look like they are getting in shape. We’ve got the second half of the season to go, and a lot more meets so it will be interesting to see how things fall into place.”