Rosary puts itself in prime position
One of the great truisms about any IHSA state swim meet is that while no one officially wins the meet from Friday's prelims, every team that has ever won has done so on the basis of the strength of its Friday performance.
Rosary hasn't won anything yet in the 2014 girls state swim meet. But the Beads swam themselves into position to challenge for a trophy, and possibly the school's fifth state title during today's finals at Evanston.
No team scores any points in prelims, but unofficial scoring is always a good barometer for which teams are likely to lift trophies. Loyola enters today's finals in first place, Rosary is second and Lake Forest is third.
"We swam solid all day," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "We've got a lot of opportunities to pick up some points. It's been a few years and this is a team we thought could come in and have a shot to win the meet and definitely be in contention for a trophy."
The Beads recovered from the disappointment of their 200-yard medley relay finishing seventh, just out of the championship heat in finals, and loaded a strong lineup.
The 200 freestyle relay is seeded second and the 400 freestyle relay is seeded third. Rosary had an additional nine swims.
"We had a rocky start," Schalz said. "The medley relay dropped four seconds and got seventh with a time fast enough to get into 'bigs.' But then things started to happen."
Alex Yager is the team's highest-seeded swimmer after swimming the second-fastest time in the 200 IM. Yager is also seeded fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
"I was really happy with how I swam and how the team swam today," Yager said. "(Saturday) will be a good day. We were all cheering for each other. You could just tell that everyone was happy for how everybody swam."
Erin Hart swam in all three relays and swam the sixth-fastest time in the 100 freestyle.
"She's a great relay swimmer," Schalz said. "We've seen that with her with the club team and in juniors."
St. Charles North had its best prelim day at the state finals in a few years. The North Stars qualified their 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay and have five individual swims.
Leading the way is junior Monica Guyett, who followed an 11th swim in the 200 freestyle with a second-place finish in the 500 freestyle.
"The 500 felt pretty good," Guyett said. "I knew I was doing pretty well when I was so far out in front of everyone. It just clicked and I felt I was going really fast. I feel like my 200 was a warm-up to my 500 and then it just went into the relays."
The North Stars 200 freestyle relay is seeded 11th but the 400 freestyle relay swam 3:27.71 and is seeded fourth.
"I think we got stronger as the meet went on," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "We got more comfortable with what's going on. I've got to remind myself that this is a new animal for every girl we have but Monica."
Monica Guyett is not the only family member with four Saturday swims. Freshman Audrey Guyett swam the 11th-best time in the 200 IM and finished third-best in the 500 freestyle, narrowly behind her sister.
"The 500 changed everything for us," Rooney said. "We've got two kids in the top six. Monica, that was the swim of the meet. We've got another day (Saturday) and we've got a lot more swims than last year."
Like Monica, Audrey swims both North Stars freestyle relays. St. Charles North's other Saturday swim is by Sam Sauer, who swims in the consolation heat of the 100 backstroke.
St. Charles East has two swims on Saturday, both by junior Jordan Morling. She was sixth-fastest in prelims in the 200 IM and fourth-fastest in the 100 backstroke.
"(Morling) looked really good today," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We made an error early and you can't make an error in a big meet like this."
Cabel referred to a slight mistake in one leg of the Saints 200 medley relay. The team finished 15th, narrowly out of the swims for Saturday.
"We recovered a little bit in the middle of the meet, but it wasn't so good at the end," Cabel said.
The Saints brought a mixture of youth and experience to Evanston, and the entire team will benefit from participating.
"You can talk about it all you like, but until you've been here, you don't know what it's like," Cabel said. "The young people really don't understand."