BARRINGTON – Michael Hamann spent a lot of time over the past week seeking advice from coaches and scanning the times of other swimmers in the state to decide what event he should swim at Saturday's Barrington Sectional.

It ultimately came down to a gut decision, as the Cary-Grove co-op senior tossed aside his usual 100-yard backstroke in favor of the 100 butterfly.

"I just sat down and took a look at the state rankings and said, 'OK, I'm 95 percent sure these kids can beat me and these are 50/50'," Hamann said. "The fly had about one or two less kids that could beat me, but I just felt more confident in my fly than by backstroke for some reason."