Rosary reclaims elite status
After Friday's girls swimming prelims, Rosary's team had a brief scare on the way home when their team bus caught fire. No one was hurt, the Beads were nearly home, and all that was left was the possibility of "we're on fire" quips during Saturday's finals at Evanston.
The thing is, the Beads were burning their way through the final day of the two-day meet, gaining points and staying in contention for one of the three state trophies.
Needing a big performance from its 400-yard freestyle relay, Rosary got the sort of performance that wins trophies from Georgia Young, Erin Hart, Emily Ryan and Alexis Yager.
Rosary entered the final event in third place, 2 points behind Downers Grove North but only 6 points ahead of Lake Forest. The Beads finished third, shut out Lake Forest from trophy contention and ended tied with Downers Grove North behind state champion Loyola.
"I love (Downers Grove North coach Judy Busse)," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "Her son swam for me. I'm very, very happy for both of us. And Mike Hengelmann did an excellent job with Loyola this year. We were always right behind them all year long. But I think having them in our conference and swimming them a lot this season really helped us out."
But Rosary weathered the bumps in the road when they came and recovered to gain points from a number of positions to make the second-place finish possible.
"Tying for second was a really nice way to end the weekend," Hart said. "It would have been nice to win, but second is just as good. I'm proud of how all of us did and how everyone got their job done."
In that final race, each of Rosary's 400 free relay swimmers had a strong leg, but Hart's second leg moved the Beads to the front of the race. A senior, Hart swam on both her team's freestyle relays. In addition to the 400 freestyle relay, the 200 freestyle relay was third.
"Relays are a major part of the meet," Hart said. "To be able to be in two of the relays and to get top three in both of them is amazing."
The second-place finish is Rosary's 13th top-three finish. The Beads' last trophy-winning performance was a third-place finish in 2011, when current seniors were freshmen.
On a state team with a number of freshmen, Hart was one of the keys for more than her swimming ability. Hart added an 11th-place finish in the 50 freestyle in her individual event.
"Being a senior and being one to have experienced state before, I kind of helped the younger people understand what the meet is about and get them pumped up to swim," Hart said.
Yager won the 200 IM, becoming Rosary's first individual state titlist since Molly Coonce won the 100 breaststroke in 2010.
"I am so overwhelmed with everything right now," Yager said. "It is amazing. From only swimming relays last year in finals to swimming all my events and winning one of my events is huge. It's definitely a transition."
Yager started in the middle of the pack but accelerated from the midpoint to the finish.
"She is such a great breaststroker and freestyler that I knew at the halfway point that she had that race," Schalz said. "She's tough. She's really quiet and you look at her and she doesn't look like that kind of fighter. But get her in
the water, and she's just really, really tough."
Yager nearly earned a second victory in the 100 breaststroke, but settled for second behind Metamora's Noelle Peplowski. Then she returned immediately to the water and anchored the Beads' 400 free relay.
The Beads had other solid finishes to earn their second-place trophy. Katie Rentz was eighth in the 100 butterfly and 12th in the 500 freestyle. Camryn Streid was 11th in the 100 butterfly. Annie Gosselin was 12th in the 100 breaststroke and the team's 200 medley relay of Ryan, Yager, Streid and Elaina Ricci was eighth.
"This was a team effort," Schalz said. "I'm really proud of these guys. They did a great job."
Also figuring prominently in the 400 freestyle relay was St. Charles North. Sam Sauer, Monica Guyett, Grace Samuelson and Audrey Guyett finished fourth, just behind Rosary. That finish earned the North Stars fifth place, the school's best finish since earning a fifth-place tie in 2002.
"For us to be in the mix there with those other teams who were competing for a trophy is a great experience for our kids," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "It's good for us for the future. That's where a trophy was won by someone today and we've got experience being in a race like that now, so that's great."
The North Stars' highlight of the meet came in the 500 freestyle when junior Monica Guyett and freshman Audrey Guyett swam nearly level with each other through the race.
Barrington junior Kirsten Jacobsen raced to the lead and was never troubled as she won her third straight state title.
But the Guyett sisters stayed ahead of the rest of the pack. When they touched the final wall, Audrey Guyett was second in 4:53.57 and Monica Guyett was third in 4:53.91.
"After the race, Monica was like 'I saw you the whole time,'" Audrey Guyett said. "It's awesome racing against her. She's a great sister and a great teammate - a great person. It was a great race."
A year ago, Monica Guyett was the team's only placewinner and the North Stars finished 31st.
"It's been pretty exciting having a lot of people swim in finals," Monica Guyett said. "With so many people scoring, it was exciting, especially in the 500 with Audrey. The 500 was pretty exciting. I like swimming against (Audrey.) All of us who were swimming today are coming back. It's going to be pretty exciting."
Monica Guyett was also eighth in the 200 freestyle while Audrey Guyett was 12th in the 200 IM.
Sauer was 11th in the 100 backstroke while the North Stars 200 freestyle relay finished 10th.
"The girls did a great job," Rooney said. "It's definitely a learning curve for us for next year. We don't lose anyone who swam today. That's awesome stuff. I'm excited about the eighth graders coming in. I'm excited with where our overall aquatic program is going and these kids have been awesome to coach this year."
St. Charles East finished 14th on the weight of two strong swims by junior Jordan Morling. First she finished fourth in the 200 IM, then she raced Neuqua Valley's Natalie McGovern all the way to the finish before finishing second in the 100 butterfly.
"It definitely ended better than I possibly could have imagined," Morling said. "I'm really happy right now. The first swim wasn't my best time. I definitely added some time from prelims. But I got fourth and that made me happy."
Morling edged Rockford Boylan's Aby Olson by .01 to claim second place in the butterfly.
"I couldn't believe it," Morling said. "I kept looking. I looked like five times to see if something changed."
Her results improve on a sophomore year when she was ninth in the 200 IM and fourth in the 100 backstroke and Morling said just as she used those results to spur her into a strong club season, she will use this year's results to power her as she prepares for her senior year.
"It makes me want to work harder," Morling said. "I mean, I worked super hard to get ready for this. But now I want to work even harder and I want to get that state title next year. I'm going to do everything I can."