Feb. 28--Highland Park senior Alan Brint will compete in four events Saturday at the boys swimming state finals at New Trier.
Brint was born blind, and he will compete against other swimmers with physical impairments in all four events Saturday. It will be his first meet against swimmers with disabilities after competing against able-bodied athletes throughout high school.
"The last two years, he did not want to come to the state meet," Highland Park swim coach Tim Sirois said Friday. "He wasn't as focused the last two years. He got much more motivation this summer and fall, and we kind of pushed it again, and he said yeah."
Brint joined the Highland Park Aquatics Club shortly after Sirois founded it in 2006. He's been swimming with the Giants since his freshman year. He counts his strokes so he knows when he's getting close to the end of the pool, and he swims close to the lane divider to help him stay straight.
"It's always been very helpful, but not necessary, to stay up by the lane divider," Brint said. "In a race, I don't focus on that, because that would bring my times down."
Brint will swim in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyles and the 100 breaststroke.
Double dipping in diving: Synchronized diving is not a sponsored event at the boys swimming state finals, but Marian Catholic senior diver Joey Cifelli is doing a fine job mirroring himself at the state meet.
Cifelli ran away with the state title last year for Marian Catholic's first championship in any event at the state meet. He posted the highest sectional score in the state and topped the leaderboard again during Friday's preliminary round.
He's in better position than anyone to break the state meet's oldest record, Dave Boldebuck's score of 537.72 for Hinsdale Central in 1976. No one has broken 500 since Rockford Guilford's three-time state champ Tom Wright in 1991. Cifelli sits at 375.6 after the first day, better than any preliminary total since 1997, the first year preliminary records are available.
"I'm not out of reach of it, but honestly I'm not really focusing on it. I'm just trying to stay consistent," Cifelli said. "I was focusing on it more at the beginning of the meet. Usually all I try and do is try my best, and if that doesn't get it I'm not going to freak out over it."
