It’s Senior Night for the boys swimming and diving at Naperville Central as they host Waubonsie Valley in a conference matchup. The Green and Gold come fresh off their own intense Senior Night victory against Naperville North, 96-90. Naperville Central is coming off wins over Metea Valley and in the Sandburg Invitational on January 18th. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
200-yard races get the Redhawks and Warriors going in a DVC matchup
To the first event of the night, the 200-yard medley relay. For the Redhawks, AJ Landorf separates and is able to get out to a big lead. Later in the race, Robert Hargrove maintains the lead for Central as George Zenow dives in the water just ahead of Waubonsie’s Dawid Kowalewicz looking to close out the race strong. Zenow and Kowalewicz are neck and neck as the two swim to the finish as Zenow gets the close win. Landorf, Leo Zhang, Hargrove, and Zenow finish in 1 minute, 42 seconds as the Warriors finish in second place with a time of one minute, and 43 seconds.
Next, we move to the individual races with the 200-yard freestyle. Beginning even, as no swimmer is able to separate as everyone remains within reach of one another. As the race goes on, Warrior Sri Amaravadi has a narrow lead and looks to outrace Redhawk James Grant for the first-place finish. Going down to the wire, Amaravadi reaches the wall first with a time of 1:54.67 with Grant not far behind with a time of 1:54.76. Both finish four seconds ahead of the third-place finisher Waubonsie’s Daniel Niv.
Naperville Central boys swimming defeats Waubonsie Valley 106-79
Jumping ahead to the 200-yard freestyle relay. Vincent Antonietti Ben Matteson and Brian Rardin start for the Redhawks as Zidan Lam and Arseni Branavitski race the opening two legs for the Warriors. Antonietti takes an early lead for the Redhawks. Later on in the race for the Warriors, Manny Perea erases the early lead Antonietti created as he looks to build momentum for a come-from-behind win as Dawid Kowalewicz looks to finish strong for the Green and Gold. Central’s James Behrend has ground to make up to retake the lead which he is able to accomplish. Behrend and Kowalewicz are neck and neck going down to the wire as Behrend gets the edge at the wall for the first-place finish for Naperville Central. Antonietti, Hargrove, Grant Baboyian, and Behrend finish first in a close one in 1:31:92 with Lam, Arpan Dhar, Perea, and Kowalewicz finishing in 1:32:44 for second place.
The final relay of the night, is the 400-yard freestyle relay. After reaching the other end of the pool, Central’s Keanu Yoshikawa establishes a lead. After the first rotation, Yoshikawa’s lead slowly disappears as Warrior Daniel Niv and Redhawk Alexander Ung are even in the second leg before Sri Amaravadi takes a slight advantage for the Warriors over Zenow from Central. Going back and forth towards the anchor leg, Zenow retakes the lead for the Redhawks which helps Senior AJ Landorf pull further ahead in the final laps. The Redhawk never looks back as he closes out the event with a win in the final event. Naperville Central finishes four seconds ahead of the Warriors with a time of 3 minutes and 26 seconds. Central wins 106-79.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!