Bartlett-Streamwood's Filipek UEC 50, 100 champ
The 50-yard freestyle is the most unforgiving race in a swim meet. The race is often broken down as "a start, a flip turn and a finish." But mess up on any of those three, or during the two lengths of the pool that comprise the race, and someone else wins.
Bartlett-Streamwood's Kayla Filipek was the best in the 50 freestyle at Saturday's Upstate Eight Conference meet at Waubonsie Valley. The sophomore covered the distance in 24.24, six-tenths faster than second-placed Samantha Sauer from St. Charles North.
"I think I'm in a better place than I was last year," Filipek said. "I've already gone the state time this year and I've already been to state. So I have experience and I'm faster at this point than I was at this point last year, so that's encouraging."
For good measure, Filipek returned to win the 100 freestyle in 52.76 ahead of St. Charles North's Audrey Guyett. Filipek qualified for the state meet in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events as a freshman.
"It's gone pretty well," Filipek said. "There's been some bad swims and some good ones and there are some things we need to work on. In the 100, (Guyett's) tough."
As a team, Bartlett-Streamwood finished fifth, behind meet-winning St. Charles North, St. Charles East, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.
"To me, she was right where she's been this season in the 100," Bartlett-Streamwood coach Jeremy Meserole said. "She was just a tenth off in the 50, so I was encouraged."
The Sabrehawks were hardly a one-swimmer team. Kelsey Ostrowski finished second in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 IM. Ostrowski battled Neuqua Valley's Natalie McGovern all the way to the finish in the butterfly.
"We had a rough meet this week in practice, and they were a little tired," Meserole said. "(Ostrowski) had a very nice fly, especially. I'll tell you what, at the third 25, I thought she had a shot at winning it. That was exciting to see. She's been chipping away, dropping a tenth here and a few tenths there."
Saturday's meet closes the regulars season and opens "Championship Season" at the same time. All area teams next head to the St. Charles North sectional on Nov. 15.
"I was telling them today that we weren't looking for anything to be lights out," Meserole said. "We just wanted strong swims, and that's what we had. People were right around their best times, maybe a little bit off."
South Elgin finished ninth in the meet. The Storm was particularly strong in relays. The 200 medley relay of Carly McGuire, Carolyn Riehle, Shianne Brewer and Emma Miller was eighth, as was the 200 freestyle relay, made of the same four swimmers. McGuire finished 13th in the 100 butterfly and 15th in the 100 backstroke.
The Elgin-Larkin co-op finished 10th in the meet, and coach Carl Metzke said his team has been preparing for the St. Charles North sectional while getting set for the conference meet.
"We saw some good times today," Metzke said. "They're ready to go and taper down and I think we're going to have some good times at the sectional."
Saturday's meet featured an exciting team race between eventual victor St. Charles North and St. Charles East. The two rivals were tied entering the final event, which North won and East finished second.
Metzke said his team - and the others - benefitted from the atmosphere on-deck as the meet reached its conclusion.
"We talked ahead of time that there were a lot of good teams here and we wanted to feed off that excitement," Metzke said. "When you're coming down to the 400 relay, it doesn't get more exciting than that, when the meet's decided on the last relay."
Metzke said freshman Nicole Levandowski and breaststroker Jasmine Bahena were among the swimmers who had strong performances, in addition to 500 freestyler Makenna Downing, who dropped 30 seconds from her previous best time.