Hononegah’s boys swim and dive team appears poised and ready to go to battle for its 16th straight NIC-10 title after completing the regular season with a whole bunch of dominance.
It sure helps when you have the best swimmer in the area wearing your colors.
“I just want to be fast,” Hononegah’s Bryson Beck said. “Right now I’m in a good spot, and the whole team is swimming fast. It’s just a super positive time right now.”
Beck is just a junior, but won NIC-10 titles last winter in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 free and the 200 free relay. Beck won the 200 free by six seconds and the 500 free by nine seconds at sectionals, getting to state for the first time.
Now, he’s just ready to build on all of that.
“Everyday he comes in ready to work, and he just wants to get better and better,” Hononegah head coach Darryl McCabe said of Beck. “He’s got the perfect mindset right now. He just wants to win.”
He didn’t make a final at state, but he did cap off the year by being named the Rockford Register Star’s MVP of our 2025 All-Area Boys Swimming and Diving team. Now, he wants to win some more conference titles, get back to state, and then make it to Saturday.
“I have to set goals for myself, or else I’ll lose sight of what I’m going for,” Beck said. “I’ve got a lot of big goals this year, for sure… And I’m on my way to reeling them in.”
Who else to watch
Boylan is expected to be right there with Hononegah in the race for the NIC-10 team title this year. Led by Gavin Velazquez, a senior who won sectional titles in the 50 and 100 free last year, this is a deep Titans team heading into the postseason. Boylan’s Rory Bulger is one of Beck’s toughest competitors in his main event, the 200 free.
Velazquez took second in the 100 fly and 50 free, second in the 200 free relay, and helped the winning 400 free relay team at last year’s conference meet.
Boylan also edged Hononegah this winter in the early-season Harlem invitational. But Hononegah came back to beat the Titans in their next two invitational matchups, and it won the head-to-head dual as well.
Harlem has Bo Shields, a senior who won conference and sectional titles in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke last year. Freeport is solid, anchored by one of the state’s best divers, Tristan Peterson, a senior who easily won conference and sectionals three years in a row and finished fifth in the state last year, and seventh as a sophomore.
Even Belvidere has two swimmers (Ben Meyers and Wyatt Treadway) who should make some noise at the upcoming NIC-10 meet.
But Hononegah, with Beck leading the charge, has that target firmly in place on its back.
“The postseason is what it’s all about for these guys, and we challenge them to go after it every year,” McCabe said. “This year is no different. And this team wants it.
“It’s time, and they know it. This is a confident team, and they’re ready.”
Beck will swim the 200 free, but they haven’t decided what else he will take part in during the NIC-10 meet. Hononegah sophomore Dan Parsonage will be in the hunt for a conference title in the 500 freestyle, and freshman Nikolai Filimonov is one of the favorites in the 100 breaststroke. Gael Bronson is one of Hononegah’s other swimmers who could help gather points in multiple events as a swimmer and diver.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Bryson Beck, Hononegah take aim at 16th straight NIC-10 boys swim title
Reporting by Jay Taft, Rockford Register Star / Rockford Register Star
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