Spartans recover from setback to Deerfield

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Glenview, 01/14/12 Glenbrook North's Victor Qiao competes in the varsity 100 yard freestyle during the Titan Relays at Glenbrook South High School Jan. 14. | Curtis Lehmkuhl~Sun-Times Media

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:11AM

Glenbrook North head coach Josh Runkle admitted the bus ride home from Friday night’s dual-meet loss to Deerfield had not been a fun one.

The Warriors narrowly won the evening’s final race, the 400 freestyle relay, to defeat the Spartans 96-90.

Though Deerfield performed well, Runkle said he had expected his team to swim much better. He told them that on the bus and again after a Saturday morning weight-lifting session.

“It was kind of a rough one,” Runkle said. “We didn’t perform well. Taking no credit away from Deerfield, they whupped us. We keep telling the kids (Deerfield) was going to be good, and that we’re going to get teams’ best shot because we have won six conference titles in a row. I’m not sure they get that.

“Deerfield started well from the beginning, established momentum and kept building on it. Our kids never recovered. If one of their guys didn’t swim well, another guy picked him up by swimming well. We didn’t have that.”

Luckily, Glenbrook North had a quick opportunity to put things right, and they did just that at Saturday’s Glenbrook South Titan Relays. The Spartans (188 points) finished third in an eight-team meet won by Warren (257). Glenbrook North also finished well ahead of Deerfield (8th, 148).

“Our challenge on Saturday was to come back and compete as a team, to lean on each other,” Runkle said. “People stepped up in situations and the younger guys did too. It was nice to see.”

On Friday, Runkle said his team seemed to get deflated after its 200 free relay B team was edged by Deerfield’s A team. He feared a similar loss of enthusiasm after a couple average relay performances on Saturday. It didn’t happen.

“A couple of our relays got eighth place and I was kind of waiting to see if it was going to be like the night before, if kids were going to bury their heads,” Runkle said. “But all of a sudden the kids stepped up and performed well.”

Among the highlights for Glenbrook North at the Titan Relays were senior Jason Chen finishing third in the 50 free elimination relay (22.76) and sophomore Victor Qiao coming in third in the 100 free elimination relay (49.50).

In a meet where sophomore relays counted toward the final team scores, Glenbrook North’s youngsters had two strong finishes. The team of Qiao, Andrew Volpyansky, Patrick Gosciminski and Jack Brierton took second in the sophomore 400 free relay (3:33.86), while the group of Volpyansky, Gosciminski, Phillip Vdovets and Brierton came in third in the sophomore 200 medley relay (1:54.18).

Glenbrook North senior Brian Roytman also had a memorable — and strenuous — afternoon. He made it through the first round of the 50 free elimination relay and then swam back-to-back relays at the end of the meet, competing in the 200 free and then swimming the lead leg on the 400 free. GBN finished fourth in both events.

“I asked (Roytman) if he wanted to go on the end (of the second relay) and keep warming down. But he said, ‘No, let me go (as the lead leg),’ “ Runkle said. “It was nice to see him take that challenge.”

On Friday, one of the few highlights was the performance of junior Stefan Johnson, who won the 500 free (4:59.24) by breaking 5:00 for the first time.

“Stefan did that without anyone really pushing him,” Runkle said of Johnson, who finished 11 seconds ahead of second-place Qiao. “It was a great effort and there should have been a lot of energy (within the team) after that. To not pick up on it ... it was a heckuva swim.”

The Spartans return to action at 5 p.m. Friday at Maine West.