Lake Forest High School’s Dylan Boyd reacts after winning the 200 free at the state meet. He also took seventh in the 100 butterfly. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Dylan Boyd, a native of Australia, emanates a certain charm when he speaks. His Aussie accent has something to do with that. It is lilting, not overly thick. It screams “proper and courteous” in a gentle way. It also belies the Lake Forest High School junior’s fierce competitiveness in a pool.
Boyd spoke after bludgeoning the field in the 200-yard freestyle at last weekend’s state swimming and diving meet at Evanston Township High School. He did not just thank his coach, Cindy Dell, after becoming the first Scout to win an event title since Mitch Stoehr won two events (200 free and 100 free) at the 2010 state meet.
Boyd uttered his coach’s name and where she coaches to members of the media following a photo session for the medal winners in the 200 free. He was formal and sweet and sincere on Feb. 27.
Listen:
“My coach is Cindy Dell, of Lake Forest High School,” Boyd began. “She is a really, really supportive woman. She told me before the race, ‘You have to want this.’ She also told me, ‘Be gracious, be humble and go as fast as you can.”
Boyd then paused, to issue an apology.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m still a little jittery.”
Boyd’s polite side had emerged. Again.
Minutes later, his fun side made an appearance, followed by another apology. Boyd recounted his journey to the present, from his decade plus in Australia to his couple of years in Pittsburgh [training with University of Pittsburgh swim coaches] to his current home on the North Shore.
“Here I am, a swimmer at the state meet in Illinois,” he said, his head shaking. “A few years ago I didn’t even know where Illinois is located.
“I’m sorry, my mouth is really dry right now.”
It was impossible to miss the location of Dylan Boyd near the end of the championship heat of the 200 free last weekend. He was the one out in front, way out in front, of the eventual runner-up, Peoria Notre Dame High School sophomore Colton Paulson. Boyd touched in 1:37.67, Paulson in 1:39.78. That’s a full-body margin of victory, decidedly decisive, the equivalent of a 108-52 final in an Australian rules football game.
Boyd’s time was more than two seconds faster than the time (1:39.92) he had posted in a preliminary heat on Feb. 26, and it nearly supplanted the pool-record time of 1:37.34, set in 1989 by Loyola Academy graduate Erik Mauer, the husband of former LFHS swim coach Lea Mauer.
“Dylan got rid of fear,” Dell said. “He threw fear in the garbage. He swam a beautiful race, split it perfectly. The last month we worked on pace, on getting his second 50 [yards] in the 200 to around 24.8 [Boyd went 24.61 in his second 50 in the championship heat, followed by a 24.91 and a 25.22]. When he arrived at our school as a freshman, I knew he was a tremendous athlete, physically. He had to grow emotionally the last couple of years, and that’s exactly what he did. He’s got that mental toughness now. He got that with help from his teammates, who pushed him day in and day out. Do you know what else helped? His teammates believed in him.”
Boyd, seventh in the 200 free (1:41.09) and 11th in the 100 butterfly (51.14) at state last winter, also finished seventh (or first in the ‘B’ heat) in the 100 fly (50.42) and anchored the 24th-place 400 free relay (3:13.48) at state last weekend.
“I still feel,” he said after his convincing win in the 200 free, “I’m in a dream sequence. This is incredible, the transition I made [as a swimmer at LFHS]. Last year, at this meet, I had a nosebleed before a race. I was mentally weak. Too weak. Every day this season was a positive day. I looked for positives every day, tried to get the best out of life.”
John-Michael Diveris watched Boyd best the 200 free field at state. It pumped up the Lake Forest High School senior diver, the Scouts’ other state finalist on Feb. 27. Who needs inspiring music or a pep talk when you get to view a teammate impersonating a cigarette boat in a small sea of chlorination?
Diveris’ first dive on the second day of state, his ninth overall, was a back dive pike. It was strong and elegant and dashing, tuxedo-ish. It earned him a couple of 8s, a couple of 7.5s and a couple of 7s. It helped him finish a career-best fourth (461.9 points), one year after finishing ninth at state and two years after finishing eighth at state. Minutes after the final dive of his prep career, the University of Pennsylvania-bound Diveris, stationed behind the boards and awaiting the final results, appeared grateful for having had the opportunity to compete in another finals sessions — and a tad sad. His teammate, senior diver Alex Streightiff, was not among the other 11 finalists. University of Iowa-bound Streightiff, the state’s top-scoring diver on sectional weekend (590.8, achieved on Feb. 20), had struck a board (with a foot) during a dive in the state preliminaries on Feb. 26. The maximum score on such a dive is a 2. Streightiff, fourth at state last winter, finished 24th (181.6) last weekend.
“He should be here [in the finals],” Diveris said.
The news of Streightiff’s tough prelim shattered Dell’s heart. She pieced it back together again, knowing one of the best divers in program history would continue to soar — and descend gracefully — at the next level.
“Such a great leader, Alex,” Dell, an Iowa graduate, said. “Talented, too. He is going to go far, so far, at Iowa. He will fit right in there, do well there. There’s no doubt.”
Notable: Lake Forest finished 14th (34 points) in the team standings at state, first among North Suburban Conference schools. NSC champion Stevenson placed 18th (24 points). … Scouts juniors Wyatt Foss and Kevin Donahue and senior Michael Hambleton preceded junior Dylan Boyd in the 400 free relay at the state meet last week. The quartet finished 24th (3:13.48).
Dylan Boyd embraces Lake Forest High School head coach Cindy Dell at the state meet. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER