Rosary finishes second in conference meet

With spots still undecided for the team he will take to the IHSA Metea Valley Sectional, Rosary girls swim coach Bill Schalz needed every bit of data he could glean from Sunday's Suburban Catholic Conference meet.

The Beads gave a variety of information for their coaching staff to sift through, finishing a strong second to state power Loyola.

"We hung in there all day," Schalz said. "When you get into meets like this, some of the kids are rested. Not that the top teams in this meet were rested, but some of the teams have rested their kids and they swim faster, and you bleed off points all day. We didn't do that, so I was happy."

Freshman Camryn Streid won the 200 IM and was second in the 100 butterfly.

"I felt pretty good in the water," Streid said. "I was nervous before, but I've trained for this. The team is really supportive and they want you to do well, so they were really cheering."

Alexis Yager gave Rosary its other race victory when she won the 100 breaststroke. The sophomore was fifth in the 500 freestyle.

"She was right at her best time," Schalz said. "She was coming off the 500 free, and that's not an event she's going to swim later on. We needed to try to get somebody in that race who could break up Loyola a bit. She's got a lot of talent and is much improved."

Among a series of solid performances was Annie Gosselin's. The junior was fourth in the 200 IM and third in the 100 backstroke.

"Her back's been bothering her and she got really tight in the IM," Schalz said. "She struggled in the IM and then she threw down a great back, and I wasn't expecting it. I'm sure a lot of it's mind over matter. She's a tough kid and a tough racer."

Rosary finished the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay with a team made of Georgia Young, Erin Hart, Emily Ryan and Yager. Hart also finished second in the 100 freestyle.

"I was pleased the 400 free relay stepped up and swam a couple of seconds faster than they have been swimming the past couple of weeks," Schalz said.

Benet finished fifth behind a sequence of strong performances, led by Ally Michaels' second-place finish in the 200 IM and fifth-placing in the 100 butterfly.

"She swam well," Benet coach Sarah Maggio said. "She's been faster in the fly. The IM was really good, so she did well."

Benet's 200 medley relay of Alanna Galvin, Sienna Picchione, Olivia Picchione and Laura Mathews finished fourth. Galvin, Michaels, Kelly Wentland and MaryClaire Webb combined to finish fifth in both the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

"We had some decent swims," Maggio said. "Some of them I'd like to be faster, but a lot of my girls, this is their last time racing before sectionals. I think we did some good things and we're setting ourselves up well for sectionals. I think they did a great job."

St. Viator finished sixth, and got its best performances from Jackie Rose, who was ninth in the 200 freestyle and 10th in the 100 freestyle.

"Our goal, as a team, was to be in the top six," St. Viator coach Jamie Klotz said. "The kids have kind of risen up to the standard. I don't know if we're in the league with the first five teams, but I'm certainly happy with the way we've performed."

Klotz said Sunday's meet will be good preparation as the Lions prepare for their sectional meet at Stevenson.

"We've had about 60 percent best times and we're not rested," Klotz said. "I think some of the kids got some eye-openers. When you go into a meet like this, you have to step up against the No. 1 team in the state and kids who will be in the finals at the state meet. This conference is extremely tough."

St. Francis finished 10th of the 14 competing teams.