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Sports
Oswego gives strong effort at New Trier : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisOswego gives strong effort at New Trier
| Reppy, Minkel end careers at state, four qualifiers poised to return next season
| by Kristin Sharp
| 3/4/2010
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Six state qualifiers competed at New Trier last Friday to cap off a memorable swimming and diving season for the Oswego co-op program.
The weekend brought an end to the 2009-10 season that included an Independent Conference championship as well as a standout finish to the Neuqua Valley Sectional.
"It was an outstanding season. Nearly every one of our goals we made," Oswego head coach Deryl Leubner said. "We won our conference meet, we got a bunch of people downstate and now we just want to make sure we do the stuff in the offseason to ensure that we don't just qualify at sectionals next year. We want to be under the cut all year so that we can shave for state instead of sectionals. It was a great group of guys. They really worked hard together."
Oswego did not have an individual advance to Saturday's finals, but the experience gained for four of the returning state qualifiers proved invaluable last weekend.
"We were very consistent. We were a tenth or two off all along the way and that's typical when you have 100 percent effort at sectionals and you try to duplicate 100 percent the next week. Usually you're a little off," Leubner said.
Oswego junior Doug Ogilvie was the first to compete Friday morning, scoring a 154.10 through his first five dives. The top 16 divers advance to the semifinals, with the 17th diver scoring a 165.80. Ogilvie's score ranked 30th among all competitors.
"It was his first time at the state meet and it's a whole different experience," Leubner said. "Diving is so much of a gray area and how you set up your dives. They cut after five dives and you want to make sure you have enough degree of difficulty in your first five dives, but you don't want to have it all in the first five because you won't make the finals. Do you plan on going in there to get your highest possible finish or do you just want to make semifinals? We wanted to make the finals so we wanted to have a good list all the way through. He should be excited. Guys he beat at sectionals were in the top 12. He was right there."
On Friday afternoon, the 200-yard medley relay team of Oswego freshman Pierce Parlier, Oswego East sophomore Dylan Coonradt, Oswego East freshman Tyler "Bucky" Coonradt and Oswego East senior George Minkel turned in a time of 1:40.96 to place 34th overall.
With the top 12 times advancing, the final relay posted a time of 1:37.40 to reach Saturday's finals.
"It was a solid swim. For so many people on our team being in their first high school state meet, we didn't have any blowup swims. All of our swims were real consistent. They handled the emotion of the meet real well and they raced and challenged," Leubner said.
Senior Justin Reppy competed in two individual events, finishing 28th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:46.51, and placed 18th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:45.55. The final individual to advance into the finals finished in 4:41.70.
"I thought Reppy had a real shot at making it in, but that last heat really beat him up. I think all six guys from the last heat bumped him out," Leubner said. "He did a nice job."
Minkel also competed in two individual events, clocking a time of 22.45 seconds to place 40th in the 50-yard freestyle and finished the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.48 seconds to place 22nd. His time in the 100 freestyle was just one second off the final qualifying time of 47.47 seconds.
"George had a rough time with the walls. The pool was very dark, and not that this is an excuse, but he had to slow down and focus on his third turn and that really cost him some time," Leubner said.
Parlier finished 34th in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.43 seconds. The 200-yard free relay team of Minkel, Reppy, Dylan Coonradt and Bucky Coonradt finished 33rd with a time of 1:30.03.
"I think it was a great experience not only for them, but for the alternates we brought as well. They got their chance to see what the meet was like," Leubner said. "It's a different environment from any other swim meet they'll be in and we got experience for our guys that swam and for the alternates who we expect to make the cuts next year also got a great experience."
Teams advancing out of the Neuqua Valley Sectional were well represented at the IHSA state finals as Naperville Central won the state title with a score of 156, Neuqua Valley finished second and Naperville North placed fourth overall.
"We've been saying this is the hardest sectional in the state for a long time and I don't know that you can argue with that this year with one, two and four," Leubner said.
Reppy closes out his high school swim career as a two-time state qualifier while Minkel made his state debut last weekend to end his senior season.
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