Trojans bring boys DAC swim and dive championship back home after two-year gap, tying Valparaiso with 405 points at DAC meet Saturday and earning championship by finishing ahead of Vikings in the regular season

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

In keeping with a long-standing Chesterton tradition, the swimmers, divers and coaches jumped into the Lake Central pool to celebrate winning the boys DAC champion on Saturday evening.
It’s always a fun moment of recognition and a reward for the hours and miles logged in the water.
But this celebration had a different feel to it. It was even louder, from the pool where the athletes and coaches mingled, to the stands, where fellow students and parents came to the balcony rail to roar their appreciation for bringing the championship back to Chesterton after a two-year hiatus.
What a moment.
This pool party was charged with even more passion than in previous years. Coach Jenni Kellstrom, who began her assault on the Chesterton record book more than a quarter century ago, opened a window into one reason this pool party was charged with even more passion than in the past.
“This team this year is probably the closest Chesterton team, boys and girls, that I’ve seen, ever, from when I swam to now,” Kellstrom said. “It matters huge to these boys, and we’re just happy to see them bring the DAC title back home.”
Nobody learned the outcome of Saturday’s meet until 45 minutes after the conclusion of the final race, the 400-yard freestyle relay. That time was used to calculate the points from the diving competition.
When those numbers were crunched, checked, and checked again, and then announced, everyone was reminded of just how tightly bunched the top of the conference was this season: Chesterton and Valparaiso tied with 405 points, Crown Point was third with 384 points and Lake Central fourth with 381.
The conference champion is determined by a formula in which the finish in the dual meet standings counts for one third, the championship meet two-thirds.
Crown Point won the regular season with a 7-0 record and Chesterton was second with a 6-1 mark, and since the Bulldogs were third Saturday, that took care of them. And since Valpo finished behind the Trojans in the regular season and tied them Saturday, that took care of the Vikings. Before the diving results were added to the scores, Chesterton was a close third. Then came the long wait. Then the explosion of joy. Underdogs from the start of the season, except in their own eyes and those of their coaches, the Trojans never stopped getting better. And in the end, the tally of the divers made it official.
Luke Hawkins added 20 points to the score with his second consecutive DAC diving championship. Freshman Callum McKiddy contributed 12 points by placing seventh, and sophomore Devon Thomas pitched in with nine points for finishing ninth.
Calling big wins a team effort is always the right thing to say, but this championship truly fit that description.
Other than Hawkins, nobody from Chesterton earned first-place points. Valparaiso won the first relay, LC the next two.
Valpo placed first in four of the swim races. Lake Central won three them and Crown Point one. Chesterton won none, yet won the year and tied the day.
Kellstrom advised before the season to keep an eye on steady improvement from swimmers who had been out of the pool for long stretches, either from playing other fall sports and/or activities or returning from injury. Sure enough, varsity soccer goalie Daniel Vidt, a freshman, and German exchange student Carl Schiller, a sophomore football player, had big days, third-place finishes highlighting their days. Junior Liam Eschbach placed fourth in the 200 IM, fifth in the 100 backstroke and swam in two relays. Sophomore Vlad Lutterman contributed fourth-place (100 breaststroke) and fifth-place (200 individual medley) finishes.
“Phenomenal swims across the board,” Kellstrom said. “I tell you what, our freshman boys swam out of their minds, absolutely out of their minds.”
And nobody swam better than sophomore Greydon Pieroni, who came closest of the Trojans to winning a race. Pieroni and Valpo’s Jake Schroeder brought out the best in each other in the 100-yard butterfly. Schroeder won it with a 51.36, edging Pieroni (51.48), who also delivered the Trojans a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle and two strong relay swims.
“I better,” Pieroni said when asked if he’ll again drop times when he returns to LC’s pool on Feb. 21 for the sectional finals. “I’m not super mad about (losing to Schroeder in the 100 fly). I knew it was going to be tight either way. And sectionals is coming.”
Pieroni’s entry time was a mere .02 slower than Schroeder’s, so that’s quite a rivalry percolating.
A class-by-class breakdown of Chesterton’s 405 points, based on awarding one-fourth of a relay’s total to each swimmer:
Sophomores (141 points): Greydon Pieroni 49, Carl Schiller 43, Vlad Lutterman 29, Nathan Fernandez 11, Devon Thomas 9.
Juniors (111): Liam Eschbach 45, Aaron Guzzo 26, Luke Hawkins 20, Andrew Kazmierczak 20.
Freshmen (79): Aadin Guzzo 31, Daniel Vidt 25, Callum McKiddy 12, Patrick Mulchay 11.
Seniors (74): Tyler Scalf 41, Wolfe Lutterman 28, Ezra Walsh 5.
Kellstrom cited the seniors and junior captain Aaron Guzo for helping to make sure everyone gives maximum effort at practice daily, “They show up day in and day out and keep the team in line, and we couldn’t do it without them and their leadership.”
An early season loss to Crown Point was the only DAC blemish for the Trojans and the improvement hasn’t stopped yet.
“These kids, they’ve grown all season,” Kellstrom said. “Here at 5:30 in the morning, 6 o’clock at night, Saturdays. They put in a lot of work. Christmas training was brutal this year, as expected, and they stepped up to the plate.”
And knocked it out of the park, bringing the DAC title back home.