History was made at the 2012 IHSA Boys Swimming & Diving State Finals on Friday, February 24, as the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay team from New Trier High School broke the national record for the event.
The Trevian foursome of Max Grodecki, Sam Skinner, Reed Malone and Jack Mangan posted the record-breaking time of 2:59.76 during Friday’s preliminaries at the William Dobson Burton Aquatics Center on the campus of Evanston High School.
The previous national record of 3:01.80 belonged to Bolles High School in Jacksonville, Florida and was set by Mike Salerno, Clay Kirkland, Damian Alleyne and Alex Lin in 1999. New Trier’s effort marked the first time a high school relay team had ever finished the event with a sub three-minute time.
Grodecki, Skinner, Malone and Mangan returned on Saturday to win the state title in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay, but failed to best their national record, registering a time of 3:00.22 in the finals. The mark of 3:00.22 was still better than the previous national record and the IHSA state meet record of 3:02.24, which was set by former New Trier teammates Joe Jeffers, Sam Metz, Nick Killeen and Mike Dominski in the 2009 finals.
Grodecki also won the 50-Yard Freestyle (:20.24) and the 100-Yard Freestyle (: 44.66) at the state meet and also teamed with Skinner, Nels Snyder and David Schriesheim to win the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay (1:23.01).