Metea Valley in position for top-10 state swimming finish
In its brief history Metea Valley's girls swim team has never finished in the Top 10 in a state meet. Whether or not the Mustangs achieve that feat in today's state finals at New Trier, they have positioned themselves well.
Metea Valley will have two of its three relays competing Saturday and adds a further three individual entries in the finals, which begin at noon.
"We swam very well today," Metea Valley co-coach Tom Schweer said. "Our medley relay was a little bit soft. When that happens, that can cause you some problems. It really showed the maturity of the kids to kind of let that race go and come back and rock the rest of the meet."
Metea Valley's 200-yard freestyle relay swims for the state championship while the 400 freestyle relay swims in the consolation final.
"Every swim we had today was a school record and everything we had but the medley relay got in," Schweer said. "It's kind of fun because every kid that we brought today is swimming tomorrow."
Additionally, the Mustangs' strong sprint freestylers - Amanda Burson and Madeline Sundberg - advanced to swim in the finals. Burson swims for the state championship in the 50 freestyle while both she and Sundberg swim in the consolation final in the 100 freestyle.
"(Burson and Sundberg), both, they're talented kids, but they work hard," Schweer said. "They're fortunate that they have each other in practice every day. They challenge each other. You can't have a bad day because the other one will turn you over a little bit. (Burson) has been our anchor since she was here as a freshman and (Sundberg) has grown into being a tremendous swimmer."
Naperville Central has three athletes competing in the finals, and Sydney Dusel has put herself in pole position in the diving competition. A senior who won the state title in 2013 and was second last year, Dusel is nearly 12 points ahead of second-place Lucy Hogan entering Saturday's competition. Each diver has already completed nine of their 12 dives, with the final three dives taking place in the finals.
Naperville Central has two swimmers competing in the consolation finals - Audrey Coffey in the 500 freestyle and Caitlin Guccione in the 100 butterfly.
Waubonsie Valley combined a series of solid swims for an overall strong prelims day.
"I think overall, it went really well," Waubonsie Valley coach Katie Peterson said. "This is the most we've had come back on Saturday in a really long time. That's really exciting to see. The girls tried their best today and did a really great job."
The Warriors' top finals swimmer is Hannah Hunt, who was seventh fastest in the 100 breaststroke.
"She's excited to swim tomorrow and show everyone how fast she is," Peterson said.
Waubonsie Valley also advanced all three relays to Saturday's consolation finals.
"We have a lot of freshmen on the state team," Peterson said. "It's exciting for tÂhem to get some experience on Saturday, see how it works and how you have to swim fast on Friday to get back on Saturday."
The West Chicago-Batavia co-op also has a pair of Saturday swims, both from junior Myanna Cook, who swims in the consolation final of the 200 freestyle and the championship final in the 100 butterfly.
Neuqua Valley returns two individual swimmers to Saturday: Ryan Dulaney in the 500 freestyle and Wlyi Erlechman in the 100 butterfly. The Wildcats suffered when their 200 medley relay finished 13th and then lost a swim-off for the final spot in the 200 freestyle relay and finished with the 13th-best time in that race as well.
"Wow, what an interesting day," Neuqua Valley coach Jason Niforatos said. "We had some good swims going our way and some good swims that didn't go our way. We're extremely young and inexperienced. It's nice to get the young ones exposed. We have one senior and a lot of them will come back next year."
Niforatos said he was pleased for Dulaney and Erlechman.
"(Erlechman) is finally putting together some confidence on the front half and looks tremendous," Niforatos said. "(Dulaney) was disappointed in her best event, the 200 free, to get 13th, the most unlucky spot. But we told her to dig deep in the 500 and she did."
Naperville North's Connie Zhang swims in the 100 freestyle consolation final while Emily Chuang swims in the 100 backstroke consolation final.