‘Fighting the good fight’
South Bend Riley, Penn aim for top-10 finishes at state again
SOUTH BEND – Riley boys swimming coach John VanDriessche knows the program’s sustained success may be coming to an end.
Effects from the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt, as the inability to bring in younger swimmers during that time has led to issues with the high school team. It’s the smallest team VanDriessche has had in his 27 years around the Wildcat program because of that, leaving him concerned for the future of a program that has won 30 sectionals and seven state titles all time.
That’s why VanDriessche is trying to enjoy this upcoming season as much as he can, given it could be one of the last great seasons for his team. Anchored by four veteran swimmers, Riley looks to repeat the success it achieved last year, which was winning a sectional championship and finishing sixth at the state finals.
“We’ve been fortunate to have the success we’ve had, but the window seems to be closing on us,” VanDriessche said. “We’re going to hold on for as long as we can and keep fighting the good fight.”
The four main swimmers back for the Wildcats are seniors Ignatius Ruszkowski, Christopher Bartmess and Joel Kricheff and junior Padraig Chapman. As a quartet they finished fifth at the state finals in the 200-yard medley relay.
Individually, Ruszkowski finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke and 13th in the 200-yard individual medley, Chapman ninth in the 50-yard freestyle and 10th in the 100-yard freestyle, and Bartmess fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Bartmess and Chapman teamed up with a pair of graduated seniors, Ashton
Maurer and Jarek Ruszkowski, to take ninth in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Kricheff was part of the ninth-place 400-yard freestyle relay team that included the graduated Ruszkowski and Maurer, along with another graduated senior in Cooper VanDriessche.
“It’s always fun because, for the most part, the kids really enjoy what we’re doing,” VanDriessche said. “They’re a pretty good group of kids. They can be some screwballs and clowns at times, but for the most part, they’re good and consciousness workers. They want to get better, so it’s always fun coaching those types of kids.”
While there isn’t much depth behind those four, coach VanDriessche is confident that if they swim to their potential, they’ll be in the mix for postseason hardware.
“We think we can be a top-10 team in the state because we think all four of those boys coming back from the relay can score in individual events and in another relay,” VanDriessche said. “We think that will give us enough points to be in the top 10, and we’d be pretty happy with that.”
Penn enters as the favorite in the NIC
While Penn won the conference championship last year, they were runner-up to Riley in the sectional and two spots behind the Wildcats at state.
The Kingsmen have five state qualifiers from last year back, scattered across multiple events. Senior Christopher Oberlie had the best individual finish of anyone for Penn last year with an eighth place showing in the 100-yard backstroke. He was also on a 200-yard medley relay team with three other graduated seniors that finished fourth.
Oberlie, alongside returning swimmers senior Nathaniel Temeles, senior Reid Ohlson and sophomore Leo Ni, placed 10th in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Temeles and Ohlson also scored points at state for their team as part of the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Returning senior Elliott Dye joined Oberlie in scoring points in the backstroke event, finishing 11th. Temeles qualified for state in the 200- and- 500yard freestyle races, Ohlson in the 100yard freestyle and Ni in the 100-yard backstroke, but didn’t advance past the prelims in those events.
Other South Bend area state qualifiers returning
Concord is anchored by the returning Cole Stevenson. As a sophomore, Stevenson finished sixth at state in the 100yard breaststroke and 11th in the 200yard individual medley, while also advancing in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.
He’s joined by three others who advanced to state but didn’t score points for the Minutemen: junior Reid Sollars (200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay), junior William Delio (200-yard freestyle relay) and sophomore Ivan Blystiv (100-yard backstroke,
Reid Ohlson of Penn takes off at the start of the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay as his teammates look on during the NIC Boys Swimming Finals on Jan. 28 at the Elkhart Aquatics Center.
400-yard freestyle relay).
While Lucas Byrd led Elkhart last year, he had a solid supporting cast that features some returnees. Junior Gabe Kazmierczak and senior Christian Khamkueang were part of two relay teams, the 200-yard medley and 200yard freestyle, that didn’t get past the state prelims. Kazmierczak would go on
to place 14th individually in both the 200-yard individual medley and 100yard backstroke.
One state qualifier returns for Northridge in junior Sawyer Lehman, who placed 10th in the 200-yard individual medley. He also advanced to state in the 100-yard freestyle.
Goshen also has a state placer returning
in senior Levi Moser, who took 16th in the 200-yard freestyle. Moser also competed in the 500-yard freestyle and was on a 200-yard freestyle relay team that includes the returning Skye Steury, who’ll also be a senior this year.
LaPorte junior Abbas Hakim made it to state in the 100-yard breaststroke but did not score.