Fremd speeds past Schaumburg
It may sound self-evident that there's no substitute for speed in a sport like swimming, but just in case it wasn't clear, Fremd made a convincing demonstration Thursday in a Mid-Suburban West dual against visiting Schaumburg.
A pair of swimmers who formerly specialized in long distances senior Megan Kennedy and sophomore Emily McCarthy had key roles in shorter races in the Vikings' 108-78 victory over a Saxons team missing a couple of key components due to illness.
Kennedy edged Schaumburg standout Sammy Schuckles to win the 100-meter freestyle and had legs on Fremd's winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
McCarthy turned in her fastest 50-meter split by more than a second, 29.26, to anchor Fremd's second 200 free relay, which edged Schaumburg's top squad to give the Vikings a crushing 1-2 finish in the race.
"My background is club swimming has always been distance, so I guess I never really thought I could be good at sprinting," said McCarthy. "I'm definitely surprised by some of the times I've already been able to go."
Kennedy, meanwhile, is welcoming the change from endless yardage to a regimen focused more tightly on intensity.
"We've done a lot of resistance training, and all kinds of stuff in the water that's really new to all of us," she said. "It's hard to compare it to what I've done before it's not easier, just different."
The progress of McCarthy and Kennedy is representative of first-year coach Andrew Kittrell's emphasis on strength and speed training. As this time of year is basically the peak of intensity training, Kittrell had many of his swimmers engaged in dryland training prior to the meet all of which made a meet which yielded nine season-best Fremd times a bit of a surprise.
"I'm so pleased with how our kids performed," Kittrell said. "We're very, very tired right now. I'd say this might be our second toughest week of the season, training-wise. Realistically, I'm not expecting our kids to be dropping times right now that's what we're expecting at the end, the reward for all the work. But we're making improvements along the way, and that's great."
Among the season-bests were Breanna Anderson's winning efforts in the 200 free (2:17.74) and 50 free (29.02). She also swam the breaststroke leg of the 200 medley relay, giving her three events in a row to start the meet before a choir concert beckoned.
Other Fremd winners included Kayleen Samuels in the 200 IM (2:36.37), Stephanie Uhrich in diving (176.30), Sam Matuszewski in the 100 fly (1:12.49) and Carly Gessert in the 400 free (4:55.22).
Schaumburg coach Tim Kasper got the worst kind of pre-meet surprise when he learned that an illness would keep Emily Langlotz out of the lineup, and similar symptoms had another varsity contributor, Angie Fee, at less than her best.
"I think I'm like every coach," Kasper said. "Any illness, you want to get it out of the way now, rather than at the end of the year. All things considered, we did just fine. The girls did their best, and we got a bunch of good races from Fremd."
Winners for the Saxons included the 200 medley relay of Schuckles, Kristy Bessler, Sydney Skibinski and Ema Cigerova, Schuckles in the 100 back (1:09.74) and Skibinski in the 100 breaststroke (1:22.77).