St. Charles East's hard work pays off

October is a month in which girls swimmers learn to dig deep, training incredibly long distances in practice, even prior to meets.

Saturday, the Saints saw a bit of the reward that comes from all that work. In their annual college events meet, St. Charles East surpassed its seeded score by 38 points and surged mid-meet to move ahead of Lake Forest and close the gap on New Trier.

Ultimately, defending champion New Trier won the meet 376-353. but those efforts did not go unnoticed.

"We're only as strong as our weakest link, and we had people that weren't supposed to score today who did," Cabel said. "Our first- and second-place people, we know what they can do, but our third people, we didn't know, and they came through and scored."

Midway through the meet, the Saints stood third behind New Trier and Lake Forest. Race by race, that lead whittled, and St. Charles East ended 353-342 ahead of the Scouts.

"We swam well today," Cabel said. "We swam gutsy. It's a long day and a long meet. Amy Pearson swam the 1,000 (yard freestyle), the 500 free, the 100 free and a leg in the 800 free relay. That's our swimmer of the day."

Pearson won the 1,000 and the 500, was fifth in the 100 and helped her team finish third in the 800 freestyle relay.

That 1,800-yard performance came following another typically strong training day. The Saints swam 6,000 yards on Saturday morning.

"We're getting in our 8,000 yards on a Saturday, which is a good thing," Cabel said. "It's the compactness of the meet, putting it all in into a three-hour period. That's pretty intense, but it's good for the kids."

The sort of things the Saints learn by pushing through barriers in those long practices was exactly the sort of things the team needed to put together a performance such as Saturday's.

"The human body will not change unless it fails," Cabel said. "It's not going to get any better if it's happy all the time. We don't break it, but we push it to the edge, and it grows. That's why we do these things. Then later, we can swim fresh and we won't snap it."

Jordan Morling emphasized her credentials with a strong afternoon. She won the 100 backstroke and the 200 backstroke and was another of the swimmers in the 800 freestyle relay.

"The competition here was the best we've had all season," Morling said. "I liked having somebody to compete against in the 100 back. In the 200 back, I wanted to take it out easy and bring it back. I did that, and I'm happy."

The Saints asked for a mile warm-up prior to Saturday's meet.

"We love a mile warm-up because we can just relax and it's less sprinting that we have to do," Morling said. "It was hard today. (Friday), we had the hardest dry land that we've had all year. So we were all sore. But once again, being part of this team is what gets us through these meets."

Izzy Herb produced a late-meet high point when she cruised to a three-second victory in the 400 IM.

"It hurt," Herb said. "It hurt so much. I haven't swam it short course in over a year. To go from practicing swimming and swimming shorter events to doing the 400 IM, it's probably one of the worst experiences I've ever had. But I am so thankful I had this opportunity to do it."

Herb joined with Morling, Kayla Jones and Katie Nagler to finish second in the meet-opening 400 medley relay and was fourth in the 100 backstroke.

"We definitely worked hard getting ready for this meet," Herb said. "We have to work harder in these meets to go fast because we're tired. I felt we did a great job of pushing through it and working through it."

Of those unsung heroes for the Saints included Dominique Carravetta, who was fourth in the 1,000 freestyle, seventh in the 200 butterfly and third in the 500 freestyle.

"It seems like the farther she goes, the better she gets," Cabel said. "It's kind of hard to explain, but she gets better the more we do."

Anna O'Malley won the 200 butterfly and was third in the 100 butterfly and also swam on the 800 freestyle relay.

"The 200 fly is a sort of signature tough event," Cabel said. "She looked better in that today than she ever has, I thought."