By Whitney Kiepura
Staff Writer
The boys’ swim team earned their first home pool victory against Schaumburg last Thursday. The varsity team won 132 – 53, but the frosh/soph team lost a hard battle, 102 – 71.
The event was loud and the atmosphere intense throughout, largely because of the swimmers’ own enthusiasm.  The breastrokers, for example, stood at the opposite end of the pool shouting “Go!” every time the swimmer came above water to catch a breath.  This encouragement helped senior Tyler Bengsten earn a time of 1:05 in the 100-yard breaststroke.  For the frosh/soph team, Matt Rendino notched a time of 1:11:04 in the same race.
But the last event of the night, the 400-yard freestyle relay, was the loudest. The relay had four swimmers, with each person swims 100 meters.  The rest of the frosh/soph and varsity teams stood at the opposite side of the pool chanting and yelling at their varsity relay team of freshman Andrew Younger, junior Brian Kugler and seniors Eric Opland and Joe Lakner . The noise levels became so loud spectators heard nothing but the roar of teenage boys.

As the Lackner leapt into the water, the boys watching flew into a frenzy, grabbing foam kickboards that were sitting on the pool deck, smacking them against the wall and floor to elevate their noise over Schaumburg . The relay swam a great time of 3:43, beating the second place Schaumburg team by seven seconds.
When everyone had calmed down at the end of the meet, head coach Alfonso Lopez had a chance to assess how the teams did that evening.  “The night went really well,” he said.  “We’d had two weeks of double practices, and this meet gave us a chance to assess where  we are”.