Naperville Central boys swimming and diving hosts Neuqua Valley for the first DVC meet of the season, providing a toasty reprieve from the freezing temperatures outside. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Neuqua Valley racks up first places finishes
In the 100 butterfly, Redhawk and Wildcat swimmers skim through the water heading towards the turn. Peter Carroll from Neuqua Valley has a slight lead in lane four followed closely by Arthur James Landorf and Robert Hargrove from Naperville Central. In one of the closest finishes of the night, Carroll hits the wall first at 56.06 just six tenths of a second ahead of Landorf. Hargrove finishes third with Jackson Wagoner from Neuqua in fourth.
Next up is the 100 yard freestyle, one of the stronger events for Neuqua Valley. Arun Kaura, who already won the 200 free earlier in the night grabs the early lead. Kaura cruises to a win by just under three seconds over Wildcat teammates Aly Hassanien, who won the 50 free and Gabriel Wu. Keanu Yoshikawa is the top Redhawk in fourth place.
More freestyle swimming in the longest race of the meet, the 500 free. Midway through the race two Neuqua Valley swimmers pull into a sizeable lead with Jack Fastabend and Theodore Yuan essentially in a two person race. Charlie Wallin from Neuqua and Grant James from Central try to keep pace with the leaders. At the wall Fastabend takes the win at 5:01.70 with Yuan less than a second behind in second place.
The Wildcats continue to set the pace
After another Neuqua win in the 200 free relay, the backstroke swimmers push themselves off the wall. Jackson Wagoner gains the early edge in lane four with Alexander Ung from Central and Tony Newton from Neuqua Valley in the hunt. Down the stretch Wagoner is able to pull away for the win at 56.44 with Ung in second and Newton in third. More big points for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats look to keep riding the waves of first place finishes in the 100 yard breaststroke. This race is neck and neck throughout with Jack Langan from Neuqua, Robert Hargrove from Central and Patrick Xu and Rocky Chan from Neuqua all near the front. In a sprint to the finish, it’s Langan and Hargrove pulling away. Langan is able to hold off the Redhawk with a time of 1:03.13 to take the win by a nose.
With the team victory well in hand, the meet wraps up with the 400 freestyle relay. The Wildcats have swept the freestyle races throughout the night and look to continue with Arun Kaura starting things off, followed by Gabriel Wu, Peter Carroll and Aly Hassanien swimming the anchor leg.
Naperville Central has George Zenow, Keanu Yoshikawa, Alexander Ung and Arthur James Landorf looking to end on a high note for the home team. On the last 25 yards, Landorf is able to make up some ground, but Hassanien holds on for another Wildcat win. Neuqua Valley boys swimming starts the DVC season with a 122-63 win over Naperville Central.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!