The Oak Park and River Forest High School boys swimming and diving team won the Riverside-Brookfield High School Invitational on Jan. 14 with 247 points. St. Ignatius was second with 225 points and Oswego East third with 220.
The Huskies were victorious in three individual events and one relay. Lars Rauch won two races, the 50-yard freestyle in 22.34 seconds and the 100 free in 48.45. Adan Pedraza took the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.53, and OPRF’s 200 medley relay team of Pablo Pareja, Pedraza, Emmett Harmon and Rauch won in 1:37.59.
Pareja finished second in the 100 backstroke in a time of 54.82, while Harmon took third in the 100 butterfly (53.51).
Other notable individual performances by the Huskies included a fifth-place finish in the 100 free (50.97) by Ethan Neuner; a sixth-place showing in the 500 free (5:11.66) by Will Keyes; and a pair of sixth-place finishes by Ian Glossa in the 50 free (23.26) and 100 backstroke (57.55) respectively.
OPRF’s 200 free relay of Harmon, Neuner, Keyes and Pedraza came in tied for second with a time of 1:30.72, while the 400 free relay of Keyes, Harmon, Neuner and Rauch finished third in 3:17.30.
Fenwick boys basketball
Fenwick High School boys basketball coach Tony Young knows his young team has made good progress this season, already exceeding last year’s win total of 10.
But he also realizes the Friars still have lessons to learn.
“We need to learn to close games out at the end,” Young said after Fenwick’s 54-40 home loss to Brother Rice on Jan. 13.
The Friars (11-9) led 23-18 at halftime, but Brother Rice’s Ahmad Henderson, a Niagara University signee, scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the second half to rally the Crusaders.
Darshan Thomas led Fenwick with 11 points while JT Pettigrew added nine.
In the Martin Luther King Jr. Shootout on Jan. 16, the Friars fell to Riverside-Brookfield 56-45. Damion Porter Jr. had 13 points and six rebounds while Thomas added 12 points and eight rebounds.
OPRF boys basketball
OPRF split a pair of West Suburban Silver games and dropped a close non-conference affair last week.
On Jan. 14, the Huskies (8-10, 2-2) pulled out a 63-62 overtime victory at York. Justin Bowen had 25 points and nine rebounds while Rodney Murphy added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Jaziah Harper nine points.
Two nights earlier, OPRF hung in for a while with WSC Silver leader Lyons Township, but the Lions pulled away over the final 10 minutes for a 76-47 victory.
“LT just took off at the end,” said OPRF coach Phil Gary. “We made a lot of mental mistakes. With a young team, we’re like a roller-coaster: up one minute, down the next.”
Christian Marshall led the Huskies against LT with 10 points.
OPRF lost to Farragut 64-61 on Jan. 16 at the Hyde Park MLK Shootout. Murphy and Alex Gossett each scored 14 points while Bowen posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
