Evan Johnson adjusted his swim cap, dove into the pool for his leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay and headed for another first-place finish in his final high school conference meet.
It was quite a finale for the Stagg senior, who anchored the winning 200 medley relay and won the 50 (21.86 seconds) and 100 (49.15) freestyles Saturday as the Chargers piled up 277 points to claim their second straight SouthWest Suburban Blue title.
Runner-up Lincoln-Way East (255) was followed by Sandburg (252), Lockport (186), host Homewood-Flossmoor (178) and Joliet co-op (83).
Saturday’s meet was further proof that Johnson, a defending sectional champion in the 50 and 100 freestyles, is suited for his sprint workload after he swam the 50 and 500 freestyles as a sophomore.
“Last season I was just getting used to my new events, getting used to the setup, all the relay positions,” he said. “This year now that I’m used to it, I feel I’m going a lot faster times.”
Johnson teamed with Nick Amendola, Lucas Smiarowski and Zack Amendola to win the medley relay (1:38.85). The same foursome ended the meet with nearly a six-second victory in the 400 relay (3:17.71) anchored by Zack Amendola.
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“I’ll take a conference win, I think anybody will,” Zack Amendola said. “We’re definitely tired, but every other team is just as tired.
“You can’t win a meet with three or four guys. It’s always the guys behind the scenes that work hard with us in practice.”
Amendola, 2014 sectional champ in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, won the butterfly (52.75) Saturday and placed second in the backstroke to Sandburg junior Kevin Stratton (53.98).
Smiarowski, a sophomore, also was part of four winning events for Stagg. He took first in the 200 individual medley (1:59.94) and the breaststroke (1:02.07).
“It feels great to go two in a row, second year in this conference,” Stagg coach Jason Carr said. “The kids deserved every minute of it, pretty much their regular solid job. Our big goal is sectionals and state.”
Lincoln-Way East junior Patrick Hackett won the 200 freestyle (1:49.10), but illness kept him out of the 500 free. Hackett was ninth in the state 500 last season. East sophomore Andy Grever claimed the 500 (4:48.72).
“We went basically our season-best in our relays,” East coach Kelly Byrne said. “The middle guys that you don’t hear about all the time, those are the guys that swam well. They came through for us and dropped time.”
East’s Bryan McNitt contributed second places in the 200 free and the 100 free.
Other winners were H-F diver Santago Concepcion-Wall (390.50) and Lockport’s 200 freestyle relay of Matt Cavanaugh, Steven Howell, Josh Lantow and Haddy Khatib (team-best 1:31.17).
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer.