Four swimmers are headed to state

The swim team had a great sectional meet last weekend. They also broke several school records in the process.

After successful team swim in the 200 Yard Freestyle relay, Sophomore Vince Possie, Juniors John Copp and  Sean DeMuro, and senior Fitz Robling, will all be representing RB at the state meet. Copp will also participate in the 100 Yard Butterfly, as well as DeMuro will swim the the 50 Yard Freestyle. This was Coach Todd Fridrych’s goals this season; sending a few swimmers to the state meet.

Along with the qualifiers, the team put up three new records. The qualifier team put up a new record as well as the 200 Yard Medley Relay put up a new score in the books.  Possie put up a new record for 100 Yard Breaststroke.  That put up a new time that broke a twenty-seven year mark. The hard work the team has been doing the whole season has finally paid off.

Swimmers competing at the State Meet will be hosted by New Trier High School this weekend.

Schraidt heads to state

After a tough sectional meet at Lincoln-Way West the men’s wrestling team only have one wrestler advance to the IHSA state meet. The meet begins this Friday down at The University of Illinois-Champaign in the assembly hall.

 Senior John Schraidt is returning to state this year for the second year in a row. Schraidt will be facing the same opponent as the last year. Jimmy Boyle ousted him last year and pinned him ending his season. Schraidt stated, “This year will be different, I’m going for revenge”.

Schraidt has high hopes for the tournament; realistically he wants to place in the finals. Coach Neil Dughetti, “Schraidt is a hard worker and deserves to go down to state.”

Swimming team gears up for invite

The swimming team has been working through the first half of the season, under the head coach Todd Fridrych. This is Fridrych’s eighth season as head coach for swimming  at Riverside Brookfield, and his 20^th year coaching overall.

“They (swim team)have done well so far and practice hard every day,” Fridrych said. The swim team placed second in the Lincoln Way Central Relay Meet and defeated Plainfield. They also finished seventh in the Downers Grove South Invite, with Seniors Kyle Miller and Sean Demuro leading the way.

The JV squad has been doing a stellar job also. They have a great core of players and are very competitive. Even with eight freshmen, they have really come a long way to improve and develop themselves. Fridrych believes they have a great chacnce of taking conference this year.

The Bulldogs are sitting at a 2-4 record with Thurday’s loss to Oswego East. “As far as the record goes, it doesn’t really tell the tale,” Fridrych said. Many swimmers have had successful time drops throughout the season including senior John Copp.

The next big event for the swim team will be this Saturday as the host the 57^th annual RB Invite. Schools that will be competing in the invite will include St. Ignatius, Oak Park River Forest, Morris, and Lockport. This will be the true test for the swim team as tough competition from OPRF will be in the mix, pursuing to win the invite.

Fridrych and his team have been setting their sights on taking conference this season and hopefully reach sectionals. “Sending four to five swimmers to state would be outstanding,” Fridrych said. Time will only tell how far the team can go and they have the ability to go as far as they can with the talent they have.

J.V. Cheerleading qualifies for State

On Sunday December 12, the J.V. Cheerleaders competed in their first competition of the season in Bolingbrook.   They took second place which qualified them for the State Competition. The State competition will take place on February 13^th.

 “We are super excited to be going down State,” Said Sophomore Julia Reyes. “We dropped out of our first competition because we didn’t think we were ready, so we were really nervous for this competition and ended up doing extremely well.

The varsity cheerleaders were unable to compete in a competition at Sandburg high school on the 5^th of December.  Emily Arp was injured with a concussion, which forced the squad to withdraw from the competition. “The concussion was from a cheerleading stunt at practice. It was really disappointing to not be able to compete,” Said Arp.

The girls are looking forward to their upcoming competition on 18^th of December. They hope to for State.

 “We’re really excited because it’s our first competition of the year;” said Junior Kelly Kramer “We’ve been practicing really hard and I think we will do really well.”

The girls also will compete in the conference competition and the Regional competition this season.

Strnad to state for Boys Golf

The boys varsity golf team faced off in the Metro Suburban Golf Tournament on Wednesday, September 29^th.  The Bulldogs finished with a score of 336 leaving them in third place for the tournament.  Glenbard South won the tournament with an overall score of 323, and Illiana Christian shot a total score of 330 leaving them in second place. 

Senior Kris Strnad led the Bulldogs shooting an 80 with junior Jack Kemper just a score behind with an 81. Senior Mike LeBeau shot an 85 at the tournament. 

More recently, the varsity golfers competed in the IHSA regional and sectional tournaments October 3^rd -9^th.  At the regional, Strnad shot an 84, Kemper an 87, and senior Max Recht shot a 91.  They all advanced to the sectional at Nazareth.  LeBeau missed sectionals by just one stroke because he double-bogied the 18^th hole. 

LeBeau said, “I was very disappointed by not making it to sectionals because it was my senior year.”

At the sectionals, Strnad shot a 76.  He just missed being a medalist at sectionals.  Strnad will compete at the state tournament in Bloomington this weekend.

Chess Team takes 21st in State, ends successful season

The RB Chess Team competed at the IHSA State Competition in Peoria, to much success. As a team, RB took 21^st in state out of the130 high schools that competed at the tournament. Unlike most other IHSA State competitions, there is only one division for Chess, meaning that all sizes of schools are competing at the same level. According to the ICA, the Illinois Coaches Association, which takes school size into consideration, RB placed second in the state.

These are the best results the Chess Team has had since 1980, when the team took second in the state. After losing five seniors from the 08-09 season, it is quite an accomplishment to have such a strong showing at the State level this year.

Chess Team Sponsor/Coach David Monti said, “This was supposed to be our rebuilding year after losing five starters from last year’s team that finished 28th in state.  This year we still went 16-5 overall and 5-2 at state so I guess we just reloaded.  We’re only losing one senior in the everyday starting lineup (1st Board/Captain Phil Willoughby) so we should be even better next year.”

The success at the State tournament sums up a successful year as a whole for the Chess Team. In the course of the 09-10 school year, the team boasted a 16-5 record, and had 3-1 records at the Glenbard South and Evanston tournaments, two of the biggest events during the season. Due to some tough pairing, two of the teams’ losses were against Niles North, the eventual undefeated State Champions.

Sophomore Jimmy Hamera and Junior Jake Dluhy had the highest individual rankings of the team. Hamera, 5-2, placed 20^th on fourth board, and Dluhy, 5-1-1, placed 16^th on second board.

When asked about the State Competition, Dluhy said, “I’m very happy with my preformance at the State tournament this year. I jumped up quite a few boards and was still able to have success. I have high hopes both personally and for the team for next year.”

Monti was very enthusiastic about the team’s season this year, adding, “This year was extremely successful. I am very happy with the outcome of the season.”

Chess is a unique sport in that it is both a team competition, and eight individual competitions at the High School level. Each player competes on their respective “board” and earns points for the team and themselves based on their individual wins and losses. Team points are determined by the board number, with one being the highest, and eight being the lowest, and whether the player won, lost, or drew the game. After points for all eight boards are tallied, the team with the most points wins that match.

Individual points are much simpler than team points. Players receive one point for a win, a half of a point for a draw, and no points for a loss. After the seven rounds at State, whoever has the most points wins. Based on who the team and players play, and how much the margin of victory is, “tiebreak points” are awarded, which are meant to decide outcomes when teams or players have the same numbers of points. This scoring system allows for individual players to still have success even if their team as a whole isn’t as strong.

RB’s Chess Team mainly functions as a club during the year, practicing two times a week, as well as optional extra time to play during lunch. Kids can be involved even if they aren’t competing. Many of the other teams that attend the State competition take their competitive chess to the next level, practicing every day and functioning much more as a sports team than anything else. This allows as many students as possible to participate, including those involved in music, drama, and sports.

Although the competitive season is over, the Chess Club still practices on Tuesday’s after school. No previous experience is necessary in order to join.