Chesterton sophomore Greydon Pieroni, competing in four events, leads six Chesterton swimmers into state meet after Trojans nipped by Valparaiso at Hobart sectional, 490-488

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Valparaiso and Chesterton combined to score 978 points at the Hobart sectional and the only way those points could have been distributed more evenly would have been for the rivals to tie.
The Vikings edged Chesterton 490-488 on a day the Trojans qualified for state in two individual events and two relays, meaning six different swimmers will compete at Friday night’s preliminaries at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.
Sophomore Vlad Lutterman won the sectional title in the 100 individual medley with a 1:57.82, easily a lifetime best.
Vlad’s classmate, Greydon Pieroni, had the biggest day of all Trojans, qualifying for state in all four of his races and earning automatic qualifying spots in both of his individual events. Pieroni swam a 1:43.27 in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing 1:06 ahead second-place finisher Ian Mendoza of Valparaiso.
Pieroni then swam faster than the state cut time with a 50.52 in the 100 butterfly, only to finish second to Valpo’s Jakob Schroeder (50.48) in a close battle to the wall.
Pieroni returned to the top step of the medal stand again for the 200 free relay. Senior Tyler Scalf led off the relay and was followed by junior Aaron Guzzo, Pieroni and sophomore exchange student Carl Schiller. The Trojans swam a 1:29.47 and Portage (1:30.96) took second.
That gave Chesterton an 11-point lead through nine events.
Schroeder and Valpo teammate Jack Douglas took the top two spots in the 100 backstroke, the 10th event, to shrink Chesterton’s lead to two points.
Even though Valpo’s Joseph Rojek won the 100 breaststroke, the 11th event, Chesterton’s lead grew to four points, thanks to Vlad Lutterman, freshman Aadin Guzzo and senior Wolfe Lutterman finishing third through fifth in the race.
Valpo took the sectional title by taking the final event, the 400 free relay, swimming it in 3:09.48.
Scarf, Pieroni, Eschbach and Schiller swam a 3:13.94, good enough for a spot in the state prelims.
Pieroni takes aggressive goals into the state meet, where the top eight swimmers compete in the championship final and finishers 9 through 16 are in the consolation final.
“Of course, it’s always a goal to make it to the second day, but I also want to get top eight in both my events,” Pieroni.
He is familiar with the recent history of times in the 100 fly championship final and has an idea of what it will take to get there.
“I haven’t looked at the 200 free that much, but I’ve looked at the 100 fly and everybody’s in the 50 to 59.9 range,” he said. “And in the last 10 years, if you go like 49, you get top eight immediately.”
His goal for the relays, he said, is to “make it to the second day and we have a lot of work to do there because one is seeded 20th (400 free) and the other one is 24th (200 free).
Pieroni is seeded 15th in the 100 fly and 16th in the 200 free. Vlad Lutterman is seeded 27th in the 200 IM.