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Oak Park places second at Lyons
Western Springs Saturday 01.26.13. Oak Park-River Forest's Nikita Bondarenko competes in the 200 yard medley relay during a swim meet on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, at Lyons Township High School in Western Springs. | Buzz Orr~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 29, 2013 2:33PM
WESTERN SPRINGS – Oak Park-River Forest coach Clyde Lundgren felt like his team could be in for a letdown Saturday at the Lyons Invitational.
He’s glad to be wrong.
“We had a big meet last night (against Downers Grove North),” Lundgren said. “It was Senior Night and we set (three) pool records, so coming off of that with a lot of emotion and good swims, I’m really proud of how they swam today. A lot of them were physically tired, so it was fun to see them come in here and really compete.”
Marmion finished first in the six-team field with 287 points, while OPRF (254) took second, Lyons (238) was third and Hinsdale South (228) took fourth.
Senior Nikita Bondarenko won two individual events and contributed to a relay victory to lead the Huskies.
Bondarenko took first in the 500-yard freestyle (four minutes, 40.80 seconds) and 200 free (1:45.98) and teamed with senior Kyle Patnode and juniors James Kelly and Mark Hallman to win the 400 free relay (3:14.90).
Patnode also placed first in the 200 individual medley (1:59.85).
Lyons got first-place performances from senior Joe Shannon (100 breaststroke, 1:03.17) and senior Craig Pace (diving, 317.80 points).
Senior Gunnar Wagner finished second in the 50 free (22.66) and third in the 100 free (49.69) to lead Hinsdale South. Wagner also teamed with sophomore Jason Yang and seniors Austin Hultmark and Ryan O’Toole to get second in the 200 free relay (1:30.69).
