New Trier’s Riley Mech anchored two winning relays at the Niles North Sectional. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PFOERTNER
The initial heat sheet had it wrong. The heat sheet had Riley Mech, a New Trier senior, slotted to race in the 500-yard freestyle at a recent meet. Mech is a sprinter, a 50 free guy. Most sprinters are allergic to distance races. Or keep their distance from them.
New Trier swim coach Josh Runkle would point out the error to a meet official but not before having a little fun with Mech.
“Hey, Riley, you’re swimming the 500,” Runkle told Mech, the anchor of the Trevians’ 200 medley and 200 free relays. The news stopped Mech dead in his wet tracks.
“His eyes got real big,” Runkle recalled before the start of the Niles North Sectional on Feb. 20. “He got excited. I then told him, ‘No, no, no, you’re not going to swim it.’ He’s a pretty solid all-around swimmer, but I’m not sure I’d want to see that. Riley is a blur of a swimmer, all arms, all turnover. It’s not a pretty sight. You know what, though? He’s fast. We like him concentrating on 50s, and that’s all he’s doing today [at the sectional].”
Mech swam 150 yards, total, at the sectional. He helped NT’s 200 medley (1:34.09) and 200 free (1:26.9) relays finish first. A first-place finish at a sectional equals an automatic berth at this weekend’s state meet at Evanston Township High School. Mech also competed in the 50 free at the sectional, needing a 21.87 to advance to state.
Mech clocked a 21.93, six one-hundredths of a second slower than the state cut in the event. Harsh. One day later, at an oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, Martin Truex Jr. was Mech and Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin was Illinois’ state swim cut in the 50 free. Hamlin edged runner-up Truex Jr. by 0.01.
“A little sad, “ Mech said of coming oh-so-close to extending his season in an individual event. “I did my best. My thinking after the 50 was, Move on, help my next relay team. You have to be ready, amped up, before swimming in a relay, especially if you’re the anchor. You have to be active, get the blood flowing. That’s why you see me jumping up and down behind a start block, before the start of relays. You have to go into a relay feeling tired. Not exhausted tired; a little tired.”
Mech enjoyed success — nobody gets tired of that — at the state meet last winter, serving as a swift leg No. 3 for the ninth-place 200 free relay (1:27.13). Danny Brooks, Alex Grant (NTHS, ’15) and Willie Kinsella swam the other legs. Brooks and Kinsella, now a pair of seniors, joined Mech and sophomore Charlie Scheinfeld in the 200 free relay at the sectional last weekend. Mech, Brooks, Scheinfeld and sophomore Ryan Gridley connected for the third-fastest time (1:34.09) among all state qualifiers in the 200 medley relay last weekend.
Mech played tennis and soccer before a friend, classmate Will Kohr, lured him to give swimming a try. Mech played tennis because he enjoyed it and soccer because everybody played soccer at some point at a young age. He joined the New Trier Swim club some six years ago. Butterfly events, covering 100 and 200 yards, were his main events. A club coach deployed Mech as a sprinter in a relay. Mech sped to “a pretty good time,” he said.
Mech, a fourth-year, suit-wearing fish on varsity, became better than pretty good in high school.
“Like a lot of things, swimming was a little hard getting into because it was really different,” Mech, bound for Northwestern University (Early Decision), said. “I stuck with it. I got used to the hard workouts and feeling waterlogged every day. I made friends, so many good friends, through swimming. The guys on our state team this year … I’ve known most of them for many years. We’re all close.
“I’m looking forward to one more state meet. My focus, as always, is to have fun. I swim my best when I have fun.”
Notable: New Trier won the Niles North Sectional on Feb. 20, tallying 300 points and capturing six of the 12 event championships. Evanston (219.5) finished runner-up. Trevians went 3-for-3 in the relays, with the 400 free unit of Danny Brooks, Willie Kinsella Patrick Gridley and Ryan Gridley clocking a 3:09.38 to complete the sweep. Ryan Gridley (1:155.21) and teammate Jack Walter (1:55.54) went 1-2 in the 200 IM; Ryan Gridley (52.05) and Patrick Gridley (52.17) went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke; NT’s Charlie Scheinfeld (57.21) and Maxwell Robertson (59.64) finished 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke. Other NT state-qualifying efforts: Patrick Drake (200 free, 1:43.33); Kinsella (200 free, 1:44.37); Patrick Gridley (50 free, 21.57); George Owen (diving, 456.4); Cameron Rosin (diving, 453.75); Scheinfeld (100 free, 47.16); Brooks (100 free, 47.44); Robertson (500 free, 4:43); and Walter (500 free, 4:44.62). …. New Trier senior Charlie Gentzkow advanced to state in all four of the events held for athletes with disabilities. He took first in the 200 free (2:19.08) and first in the 100 breaststroke (1:32.86).