Neuqua Valley third in its final UEC meet

Neuqua Valley's girls swim team showed on Saturday, as it has all season, that it is one of the strongest teams in the area. But at Waubonsie Valley, meet-winning St. Charles North and second-place St. Charles East finished ahead of Jason Niforatos' team in its final Upstate Eight Conference meet before heading to the DuPage Valley Conference in 2015.

"I've said all along that our focus is at the end of the year," Niforatos said. "Some things that normally do not go well at meets went really well for us today. And some things that normally go well for us did not go well. It's just one of those things where sometimes that stuff is going to happen. These girls are good at being reflective and refining their training."

Neuqua Valley's day began well when Lauren Beyer and Michelle Roth went 1-2 in diving.

"That was awesome," Niforatos said.

The Wildcats opened the swimming portion of the meet with victory in the 200-yard medley relay in a meet record 1:48.96. Natalie McGovern, Amanda Brockmeier, Wyli Erlechman and Mackenzie Hornstra swam more than a second faster than second-place St. Charles East.

"Every girl on that relay has something they need to focus on in order to go faster," Niforatos said. "That's the cool thing, that we have the ability to go faster."

McGovern won the 100 butterfly for the Wildcats and was fourth in the 100 backstroke, while Brockmeier was first in the 100 breaststroke with teammate Isabel French third.

"This meet was all right," McGovern said. "It's a meet where we see where we are in our last meet before the sectional. Now we can make some adjustments and we know what we have to change before we get ready for the state meet."

The IHSA sectionals are Nov. 15, and area teams will devote the next two weeks to intense training to prepare for both that meet and the Nov. 21-22 state meet at Evanston.

"As a team today, we were trying to hold it together," McGovern said. "Some races were better than others, but that happens, so you've got to learn from it and get over it."

Saturday's meet ends a long grinding period of competition and practice for the Wildcats.

"We've been 'on' for a long time," Neuqua Valley coach Jason Niforatos said. "We went to the St. Charles North Invite and we won that. Then we went to the New Trier and the Trevian Relays and did well there despite some setbacks. Then we went to Metea and swam lights out despite some of our most intense training. I just felt like all week that we were in that mode of being real tired."

Waubonsie Valley finished fourth in the meet. The Warriors' top performance came in the 200 freestyle relay, where Alexa Steffl, Hannah Hunt, Emma Tinney and Avery Mathew finished third. Those swimmers provided the core of the team's other top results.

Hunt was second in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 IM, Steffl was third in the 50 freestyle and sixth in the 100 butterfly, Tinney was fifth in the 200 freestyle and Mathew was fifth in the 50 freestyle.

"They've been working really hard on that relay and making sure it's in the same spot it was at the end of last season," Waubonsie Valley coach Katie Peterson said.

A year ago, the Warriors' 200 freestyle relay finished 11th in the state meet.

"They have goals for sectionals and state that they're trying to accomplish," Peterson. "(Steffl, Mathew and Hunt) swim in the medley also. I knew coming in that St. Charles East, St. Charles North and Neuqua were strong. We lost to all three in duals, but they were all close. I thought, overall, the girls swam really well."

Metea Valley finished sixth on Saturday, with Amanda Burson finishing fourth in the 50 freestyle and Jaquelyn Kurkjian placing fifth in the 200 freestyle and also fifth in the 100 backstroke.

"We knew coming in here that the St. Charles schools, Neuqua and Waubonsie were pretty tough," Metea Valley coach Mark Jager said. "We were maybe focused on going into sectionals and fine-tuning some things in our races. I think we have a good idea of how we'll do in sectionals based on today."

But the best race of the day overall for the Mustangs was the 100 butterfly, where Burson was fourth and Madeline Sandberg was fifth.

"We had two good swims there and we'll be looking for good things out of them," Jager said.

The West Chicago-Batavia co-op finished seventh and had a series of solid results. Lindsay Bruce was sixth in the 200 freestyle and seventh in the 500 freestyle. Myanna Cook was eighth in the 100 butterfly and sixth in the 100 backstroke. Lindsay Bruce was seventh in the 500 freestyle, and Natalie Nelson was seventh in the 50 freestyle.

"This meet is kind of at a rough part," West Chicago coach Nick Parry said. "We right were everybody's either starting their taper or finishing their regular season stuff. (Friday) night, at the JV meet, that was almost like a state meet because those kids were shaved and tapered. For these kids, this is almost like a regular meet."

Still, Parry saw things he liked from his swimmers.

"We're tired and beat down and we had some good swims and some bad swims," Parry said. "(Nelson) is right on her 50 free time. But it's a really strong field coming here. There's six or seven good teams, and I'd consider us at the bottom of that group. It's a loaded field."