The Penn High School boys swim team won all 12 events Saturday in a dominating display at the NIC meet in Elkhart.
ELKHART ― Penn High School boys swim coach John VanDriessche had a problem on Saturday afternoon.
The thing though was that it was a great issue to have for the second-year coach of the powerful Kingsmen squad.
VanDriessche had to pick among a host of standouts from his team to represent the Northern Indiana Conference champions in a post meet interview.
That was really the only pressing question for the highly-respected Penn coach after watching his team roll to the title of the NIC Meet at the Elkhart Health and Aquatics Center Saturday, Jan. 31.
Penn, in winning its ninth straight conference meet championship, piled up 694 points. The Kingsmen won all 12 events and also placed second in 11 others and third in eight more.
New Prairie finished in second place with 372 points, with Elkhart third with 299.5 points.
"It's not going to be easy, but I'm not complaining," said VanDriessche when asked to pick a couple of swimmers on his talented team for interviews.
The Kingsmen, who will next compete in the Penn Sectional on Feb. 19 and 21, placed fifth at the state finals in 2025. Penn returned several stars from that team, who now have their sights set on this year's state meet Feb. 27-28 in Indianapolis.
VanDriessche, who guided the Penn girls to their sixth straight NIC Meet title two weeks ago, settled on the trio of senior Leo Ni and juniors Max Barnes and Josh Brown.
Ni won the 100-backstroke event in a time of 51.67. He also placed second to teammate Joshua Seluzhitskly in the 100 fly (who won the race in a time of 50.96) and swam a leg on the winning 200 medley relay team with Max Barnes, Charlie Christianson and Curtis Markowski that clocked in at 1:34.51.
"I'm really happy with how I swam today," said Ni. "I wanted to work on some things today and it worked out. I had season best times in all of my individual events today."
Ni noted that having a deep and talented team is a huge benefit.
"I always go out here and try my best," Ni stated. "I always want to give it my all regardless of where I'm seeded at. There are a lot of guys behind me who push me. As a team, we push each other and these meets are important to us."
Max Barnes won the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:42.75. He also took top honors in the 500 freestyle with a top effort of 4:41.34 and swam on the winning 200 medley relay team and the first place 200 freestyle relay team with Seth Werntz, Grayson Wells and Gavin Crail in a time of 1:27.09.
"I swam how I wanted to today," remarked Barnes. "It was an opportunity to show what I can do in some different events. I just missed setting the NIC record in the 500 freestyle, but I'm excited about my time and about the chance to break it next year.
"I do feel really good with where I'm at right now and where our team is at too. I get the best competition from my teammates and they are very supportive. They help me improve. I think that we are ready to go and swim fast come the postseason."
Brown won the 100-breaststroke race in a time of 58.22. He also swam on the winning 400 freestyle relay team Luke Temeles, Sawyer Wells and Matthew Weeks that won in a time of 3:15.00 and on the second place 200 medley relay team.
"I just go out there and try and do my best and help my team in whatever way I can," Brown said. "It's a huge team thing for all of us in how we push each other. I feel good about my swims today, but there is still a lot that I can improve on. I'm just super excited for the next month to see what we can do."
The Penn trio all agree that their team can do some huge things come the state finals in a few weeks. The Kingsmen placed second at state two years ago.
"I definitely think that we can be state runner-up this year, like we were wo years ago," Ni said.
Barnes was in complete agreement with his teammate.
"Our goal is to be second at state," Barnes said. "I definitely think that we can do it, and it would mean a lot to us. Our relays are going to be big for us at state. That's going to be very important."
Penn also got championship individual swims Saturday from junior Crail in the 200 individual medley (1:55.30), sophomore Charlie Christianson in the 50 freestyle (21.41) and sophomore Sawyer Wells in the 100 freestyle (46.80). Omar Zidan won the diving title with 349.10 points for the Kingsmen.
Grant Laskowski of New Prairie was second in the diving competition with a score of 321.90 points.
Elkhart had a pair of third place finishes with its 200 medley relay team of Anthony Metzcus, Cayden Pettis, Braedyn Brenneman and Jackson Ezzell and its 200 freestyle relay team of Pettis, Ezzell, Metzcus and Wyatt Koons.
South Bend Saint Joseph placed third in the diving as Matthew Champlin totaled 317.85 points. The Huskies were also third in the 400 freestyle relay event with the team of Jack Erdman, Nathanael Weber, Charlie Helm and Tim Freel.
South Bend Riley was fourth in the final team standings with 295 points. Saint Joseph was fifth with 252.5 points, followed by South Bend Adams (226), South Bend Washington (65) and Mishawaka Marian (7).
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: 2026 Northern Indiana Conference boys swimming meet results, Penn wins
Category: General Sports
