Boys Swimming: Niles West swimmers need to get back to work

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2/18/12. Winnetka. Niles West's Ryan Millar swims the breaststroke leg of the 200IM at the New Trier Sectional. | Tracy Allen~for Sun-Times Media

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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:31AM

If the Niles West swimmers are to be the best, the Vikings got a good look at what that means at Saturday’s New Trier Sectional.

None of the Wolves qualified for Friday’s state preliminaries at Evanston. West head coach Dan Vander Jeugdt said he was disappointed the season came to an early end, but said there were multiple things the young swimmers in the program could take from the afternoon.

“One lesson is that anything can happen when you’re here (at sectional),” he said. “Also, look at the other teams: The kids who are swimming so fast, swim year-round. If you’re not swimming year-round don’t think about being up there and going to state.

“It all comes down to making sure you do what you need to do in the offseason. Once you reach a certain point, if you’re not swimming year-round, you come back to that point. It’s hard to get beyond that point. You keep coming back to that point.”

The coach emphasized that 90 percent of his swimmers had best-times, but they just didn’t drop enough to advance.

Senior Ryan Miller, the team’s most experienced swimmer, participated in relays at last year’s state meet. He shaved four seconds in the 200 IM (6th, 2:01.60), but was short of the 1:59.06 qualifying time. He took fifth in the 100 butterfly (53.30), just off the 53.18 state cut.

“Ryan was right there. He had a good drop in the IM and felt like he just couldn’t get his legs going for the fly,” Vander Jeugdt said. “He was disappointed, but said, ‘I have four more years of college swimming, and I’ll have better swims.’ ”

Classmate Stephen Giddens came in 11th in the 50 free (22.72), where the state cut was 21.98, and 13th in the 100 free (50.70), where the mark was 48.33.

Senior Nick Giffen touched 13th in the 100 free (50.86) and 12th in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.63).

The 200 medley relay team of senior Will Lefler, Giffen, Miller and Giddens took sixth (1:42.45), four seconds off state time, while the team of Giffen, Miller, junior Drake Nickell and Giddens was sixth in the 200 free relay (1:30.37), missing the 1:28.39 cut.

Vander Jeugdt said he was pleased with the time drops of sophomore Sergei Lemesh in the 500 free (11th, 5:08.27) and the 200 free (15th, 1:55.63).

Next year, Vander Jeugdt said he hopes to count on Nickell, Lemesh, sophomores Kyle Patt and Steven Renko and a few talented incoming freshmen. “Nickell is the kind of guy I’m going to build around,” he said. “He better be a leader or we’re in trouble. He has that in him. But he’s got to want to do it.”

Niles West scored a 72.50 to finish seventh in the 13-team sectional.