Girls swimming: St. Charles North UEC champ

In keeping with Halloween, costumed athletes and coaches were to be seen variously on-deck at Saturday's Upstate Eight Conference girls swim meet. None, however, were better-attired than St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney, who was dressed as the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland," complete with top hat, coat - and a plush white rabbit in one of his pockets.

By the end of the afternoon, Rooney's North Stars wore the conference crown, and the only thing "mad" about the day was the way the reconfigured conference's athletes performed. Five records fell on an afternoon when host St. Charles North bested crosstown rival St. Charles East 321.50-286.50 for the title.

"The team did very well today," St. Charles North sophomore Audrey Guyett said. "The JV, varsity, we all swam well. Rooney has been working us hard, and hopefully it will all work well for us in the end. We're very close as a team, and I think that will help us."

Monica Guyett set one conference record when she swam 4:48.84, a half-second faster than Emma Smith swam for St. Charles East at the 2011 UEC meet. Monica Guyett, a senior, also won the 200 freestyle. Sophomore Audrey Guyett tied St. Charles East's Isabel Herb in the 100 backstroke, and each will share the conference record as their mutual 56.55 time was faster than Jordan Morling swam for St. Charles East in 2013.

"I think I'm doing well," Audrey Guyett said. "I'm working hard, always work hard in practices. I'm getting ready, and I believe the team is too."

The North Stars' Samantha Sauer also set the conference record in the 100 freestyle, when she swam 52.33 in the 100 freestyle, breaking Kristen Brennan's 1999 record - one of the longest-standing records in the UEC.

Audrey Guyett also won the 200 IM on a day when the North Stars also gained a conference champion through diver Katie Schutz.

"We're trying to find the answers for our state team kids to be faster," Rooney said. "Some of them respond really well."

St. Charles North enters the two-week break before the IHSA St. Charles East sectional as one of the top teams in the state. There is always an elite group of teams that vie for trophies and this year, the North Stars figure to be in that mix.

"We're trying to do something that hasn't been done for us," Rooney said. "It's a four or five-team show coming up, and we need to understand how tough it is, and how tough you have to be. We have four or five freshmen in the mix, and they can't be where Monica (Guyett), Sammie (Sauer) and Grace (Samuelson) were. These freshmen will be in the fire, and we have great leadership for them."

St. Charles East had a strong day, but the North Stars stayed ahead most of the meet.

"That's where it looked on the books coming in and that's how it worked out," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "Conference comes at a tough time and you can't rest for this coming in. You have to just hammer through it, and that's what we did."

St. Charles East opened the day with its 200 medley relay breaking the conference record. Jordan Morling, Kayla Jones, Anna O'Malley and Isabel Herb swam 1:47.79, eclipsing the 1:47.93 set by Morling, Shea Hoyt, Herb and Katie Nagler in 2013.

"I think we all were tired," Herb said. "This is the first time it's been a combined JV and varsity meet, and it felt like the meet would never end. But I think all of us tried to fight through it, and as a team, we do a great job staying strong to the end."

Herb had a special conference meet. The senior won the 100 butterfly, then tied Audrey Guyett in the 100 backstroke. Herb and Guyett will share the record, having jointly finished ahead of Morling's 2013 record time.

"I think I surprised myself a little bit today," Herb said. "I'm really happy with how I did. The 100 back was crazy, because you don't tie very often in swimming. I remember telling my friend afterward that I saw us reach for the wall at the same time. I had no idea what way it was going to come out, but I am happy, because I get to share that first place title."

Kayla Jones was the Saints' other event winner, placing first in the 100 breaststroke.

"We started strong, kind of wavered in the middle, then came back strong at the end," Cabel said. "We've just got to put together a full day.

Like the North Stars, most of the Saints top swimmers will continue training hard the next two weeks in order to prepare for the sectional, which the Saints host on Nov. 14.

We're a little ahead of where we were last year," Cabel said. "We're a little over 500,000 yards right now, and we want to be at 600,000 before the end of the season. Last year, we weren't at that point, so we can focus a little more on technique."

In third place, but far behind the St. Charles schools, the Bartlett-Streamwood co-op had a solid afternoon. Junior Kayla Filipek had the only non-St.. Charles swimming victory when she won the 50 freestyle. Filipek was also second in the 100 freestyle. Sarah Hanning was fourth in both the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. Paige Edmier was fourth in the 500 freestyle, and Gabby Seberger added a fourth-place finish in the 100 backstroke.

"We wanted to be as competitive as possible, but we just don't have the depth to compete with these other teams," Bartlett-Streamwood coach Jeremy Meserole said. "We did what we needed to do in order to get third, and that's a successful meet."

The Sabrehawks finished the meet with a strong 400 freestyle relay, which was in contention through three legs before Monica Guyett anchored St. Charles North to an emphatic victory. But Bartlett-Streamwood started well with Filipek, and stayed near the front through Brianna Cichon and Hanning. Kelly Morgan anchored the team to third place.

"I like the way we do it, getting (Filipek) out front," Meserole said. "The other girls fight for every inch and hold on as long as they can. I thought we raced it very well."

Just behind Bartlett-Streamwood was the West Chicago-Batavia co-op. The team has some swimmers who have experience at the state meet, and those athletes gave the co-op its best finishes. Natalie Nelson was third in the 50 freestyle and also third in the 100 freestyle. Myanna Cook was third in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 freestyle. Nelson and Cook combined with Lindsay Bruce and Ula Konopko to place third in the 200 freestyle relay.

"You had the two St. Charles schools, who were going to duke it out," West Chicago-Batavia coach Nick Parry said. "Then you had Bartlett and us in that middle group, and Bartlett was just a little better than us."

Cook and Nelson are both juniors. Cook has been to the state meet twice and Nelson qualified last year. Bruce, a senior, and Konopko, a sophomore, swam with Cook and Nelson in the 400 freestyle relay at last year's state meet.

"We have some kids who have been through the wars a little bit," Parry said. "The conference meet, the sectional and the state meet - nothing much fazes them. That's good for our younger kids to know to go swim their races and get it done."

West Aurora's team has grown in stature through the season, and finished fifth of the seven competing teams. Gina Jenkins recorded the Blackhawks best finish when she was fifth in the 500 freestyle.

"We had best times across the board from our tapered kids," West Aurora coach Chris Ranallo said. "The not tapered kids have some more work to do. They'll come in Monday and we'll go from there on it."

Already the school's record holder in the 500 freestyle, Jenkins needs a strong time drop to qualify for the state meet. She was ninth in the 100 butterfly. Annika Ness was sixth in the 100 backstroke.

"We have a lot of young kids coming onto the team this year, a lot of freshmen," Ranallo said. "It'll be good for them to learn getting ready for sectionals. It's a young team, but an exciting team. They'll be ready to go in two weeks."

South Elgin finished sixth. Hannah Pozezinski was the highest-finishing Storm swimmer when she finished seventh in the 100 butterfly. Elgin placed seventh in the meet, and Echo Boehm was ninth in the 100 freestyle for the Maroons.