Congratulations to our boys swimming team for finishing off the conference season with strong performances! Varsity placed first, while JV placed third, both against the CSL North conference teams (Maine East, Maine West, Glenbrook North, Highland Park, and Deerfield).

Here is the breakdown of the rankings

Varsity rankings: 

1. Niles North (367)
2. Highland Park (317)
3. Deerfield (282)
4. Glenbrook North (265)
5. Maine West (134)
6. Maine East (25)

JV Rankings:

1. Glenbrook North (444.5)
2. Deerfield (268.5)
3. Niles North (267)
4. Highland Park (186)
5. Maine West (93)
6. Maine East (75)

Top 3 event placers [Varsity]:

• 200 Y Medley Relay (Anthony Zagorov FR, Mitch Mages SO, Michael Zagorov FR, Ethan J. Lee SO) 2nd place– 1:39.92
• 200 Y Freestyle (Anthony Zagorov FR) 2nd place– 1:46.82
• 200 Y I.M. (Michael Zagorov FR) 3rd place– 2:04.31
• 50 Y Freestyle (Ethan J. Lee SO) 1st place– 22.41
• 100 Y Butterfly (Patrick Cox SO) 1st place– 55.34
• 100 Y Freestyle (Ethan J. Lee SO & Eddy Kang SR) 1st place & 3rd place– 48.51 & 49.44 respectively
• 500 Y Freestyle (Anthony Zagorov FR & Alem Jukic JR) 1st place & 3rd place– 4:42.43 *school varsity record & 4:58.07 respectively
• 200 Y Freestyle Relay (Michael Zagorov FR, Alem Jukic JR, Patrick Cox SO, Eddy Kang SR) 2nd place– 1:31.07
• 100 Y Breaststroke (Mitch Mages SO) 3rd place– 1:04.40
• 400 Y Freestyle Relay (Eddy Kang SR, Jared Brown FR, Anthony Zagorov FR, Ethan J. Lee SO) 1st place– 3:16.73

Top 3 event placers [JV]:

• 200 Y Medley Relay (Al Estacion SO, Raihan Ahmed JR, Luis Castaneda SR, Ethan E. Lee JR) 2nd place– 1:52.18
• 200 Y I.M. (Luis Castaneda SR) 3rd place– 2:25.66
• 50 Y Freestyle (Raihan Ahmed JR) 3rd place– 25.14
• 100 Y Butterfly (Luis Castaneda SR) 1st place– 59.89 *school JV record
• 500 Y Freestyle (Jonathan Tapper SO) 2nd place– 5:42.89
• 100 Y Backstroke (Al Estacion SO) 2nd place– 1:01.95
• 100 Y Breaststroke (Kris Estacion SR) 3rd place– 1:12.95

“I think we did really well as a team and as individual swimmers. We really went out and showed our conference what Niles North was made of,” Al Estacion, sophomore, said. Estacion expressed his feelings of dismay, bringing up the fact that they lost to the 2nd place Warriors by 1.5 points. “I wouldn’t say that it exceeded my expectations but I could say that we all swam really fast swims. We did really well for this year and we showed other schools that Niles North is now a school  to watch out for future meets and conferences,” he added.

Estacion is hoping to swim for varsity next year and set a goal of breaking one minute on a 100 Y backstroke. As a returning swimmer for the 2015-16 season, he plans to push himself harder than he did this year and to have a good work ethic and positive attitude, in and out of the water.

“As a team, I  think winning conference again next year would be amazing, especially since some of our seniors are gone next year,” Anthony Zagorov, freshman, said. “Also, our team growing and getting a high placing at sectionals would be great too,” he added.

Zagorov expressed his feelings about how important it is to him to make it to state. Although, he already met the requirements for the 500 Y freestyle with a time of 4:42.43 at conference, he has been training hard to improve from it for sectionals.

If you are interested in supporting the team compete at sectionals, don’t hesitate to attend at the exciting event! Details of the event will be provided when it is announced on the boys swimming page. Click here for the link.