Strong showings from Chesterton girls swimmers and divers has Trojans in good shape heading into DAC meet Saturday; boys coming off big win over Lake Central

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton junior diver Ruby Fowler is on a roll heading into Saturday’s DAC girls swim and dive championships, where the Trojans, fueled by elite swimmers in every class from freshman through senior, will be the favorites.
Fowler and sophomore Bella Walters give the Trojans a shot to score big in the diving event as well.
Fowler followed up her title in the 11-dive Hobart Diving Invitational, won by sister and current Illinois State diver Bayley a year ago, by compiling her personal best six-dive score (224.80) in Tuesday’s dual meet at Lake Central. Walters (213.55 at LC) was a close second in both events.
“Dynamic duo for sure,” diving coach Elijah Mercado said. “They’re getting a lot better. We’re really sharpening up the little things, focusing on small details, but they pay big dividends. So, I think that’s what’s been helping us a lot.”
In his fourth year in the Chesterton program, Mercado forever tries to make himself better, too, and thinks he has done that with a tweak.
“We’ve taken a different approach to our training, stuff to keep us less stressed,” Mercado said. “We’ve hit the numbers in our dives, but in terms of the critiques of everything, it’s just been a little different. I’ve changed my ways of engaging with them, kind of helping them understand a little bit more what I’m talking about in terms of their corrections and such, and they’ve been responding to it well so far.”
By competing with and against each other daily in either practices or events, Fowler and Walters make each other better.
“They push each other, for sure,” Mercado said. “It’s a very loving competitiveness. Of course, they compete against each other, but they’re always supportive of each other. They train well, they practice hard and they feed off each other pretty well.”
Junior Luke Hawkins, the top diver on the boys’ team, returned to action at LC after missing three consecutive meets because of an injury suffered in warmups at Munster. Hawkins scored a 216.15, followed by sophomore Devon Thomas (192.35) and freshman Callum McKiddy (186.05), all finishing well ahead of LC’s one diver.
“They surprise me all the time,” Mercado said of Thomas and McKiddy. “They’ve gone pretty far in their practices. They’ve been getting a lot more bold with trying harder things. … I’m super excited not only where they are now but where they’re going to be. It’s going to be phenomenal.”
A look at how Chesterton swimmers fared in winning both the boys and girls duals at Lake Central.
(Girls) Chesterton 129, Lake Central 51: It took all of two events for the Trojans to show the balance of their roster in terms of experience level.
In winning the 200-yard medley relay, they used, in order, a junior, a sophomore and two freshmen. Adalyn Laughner swam the backstroke, Brenley Bonez the breaststroke, Reese Kellstrom the butterfly and Brynn Law the freestyle.
No seniors.
Then in the second event, the 200 freestyle, three seniors swept the top spots: Peyton Ostertag (1:58.07), Lux Mountford (2:02.80) and Tegan Werner (2:03.69).
A Chesterton athlete won 7 of 8 individual swim events. Again class balance was evident without even looking past the first-place finishers. Freshman: Law won the 200 free; sophomore: Bonez won the 50 free and 100 breaststroke); junior: Emily Hofmann won the 500 free, Laughner the 100 backstroke; senior: In addition to Ostertag’s 200 free win, Werner won the 100 butterfly.
Beyond the event winners, the Trojans had swimmers scoring points for the team from all four classes: freshmen Kellstrom, Taylor Ryan, Makenzie Soto and Cate Swistek; sophomores Alyssa Scalf and Kennedy Draves; junior Patricia Ozimek; seniors Lux Mountford and Natalie Pieters.
(Boys) Chesterton 102, Lake Central 83: Junior Liam Eschbach had a huge night to lead the Trojans to victory on the road. Eschbach won the 200 individual medley with a 2:02.26 and won the 100 backstroke (57.10), edging classmate Aaron Guzzo (57.24).
Sophomore Greydon Pieroni won the 100 butterfly in 53.74 and took first in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:03.99.
The 11-point advantage in diving, plus strong swims from freshmen Aaidan Guzzo, Patrick Mulchay, Daniel Vidt, sophomores Vlad Lutterman and Carl Schiller, junior Andrew Kazmierczak, and seniors Tyler Scalf and Ezra Walsh added to the Trojans’ point totals to swing the meet in their favor.
The boys next compete Tuesday at a boys and girls dual meet at Portage. The boys DAC swim and dive championship is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 31 at Lake Central.