Girls swimming: Rosary seeking second-straight state title

With thousands and thousands of training yards completed and the resting taper finished, there's really only one thing left for the state's best girls swimmers - swim as fast as they can for two days in Evanston in search of IHSA glory.

For defending champion Rosary, the meet which takes place Friday evening and Saturday afternoon brings a chance to repeat and earn the school's sixth state title this century. For St. Charles North, which finished third a year ago, there is a hope of a return to trophy-holding status. Bartlett brings its strongest team to a girls state meet and St. Charles East has fast swimmers as well. For athletes from those schools as well as the Crystal Lake coop and West Aurora, there are hopes of individual race success as well.

Rosary entered the season as most people's favorite to lift the first-place trophy when Saturday's finals have finished, and the Beads have done nothing since August to dissuade anyone from that thought, especially when they qualified all but one swimming entry from last week's Metea Valley sectional.

"We are in very good shape," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "We did what we wanted to the way we wanted to do it. Our fast kids didn't have to wear their fast suits, and that sets us up well for this weekend."

Pre-meet seedings can be misleading, because some swimmers taper for the sectional meet and they will not swim faster at the state meet while the elite swimmers configure that time-dropping process to take place for the state finals. But Rosary's fastest swimmers did not taper and are in good shape heading into Friday's prelims.

This includes Alexis Yager, seeded third in the 200-yard IM and sixth in the 100 breaststroke. Anne Tavierne is seeded second in the 200 freestyle and 9th in the 100 freestyle. Emily Ryan, Camryn Streid, Sydney VanOvermeiren and Athena Ye are other Beads with solid pre-meet seedings.

"For us, there's an expectation that we want to swim well, hot that we want to win state," Schalz said. "We want to win state, but we know we have to swim well to win. We can't go in and swim badly on Friday. But it always comes down to each individual doing their job. We don't sit down and have meetings about 'we have to win state.' "

St. Charles North's lineup was highly-changed this year after large losses to graduation, though the North Stars got progressively better through the season. The Upstate Eight Champions followed with victory last weekend at the St. Charles North sectional.

"If I rewind and go back 10 years with my coaching, I wish I knew then what I know now about keeping it relaxed and fun," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "It's something I work on every year. You've got to make it fun. It is fun. It's high school athletics."

The North Stars are a young group, but also very talented. Junior Audrey Guyett is seeded sixth in the 200 freestyle and seventh in the 500 freestyle. Freshman Megan Armstrong carries the team's highest seeding into the state meet having recorded the fourth-fastest sectional time in the 100 backstroke.

"We have three freshmen who will be major contributors and a fourth as an individual," Rooney said. "I'm excited to see how they embrace the meet. They've done a great job of embracing being on the team with each other and growing and learning. It's exciting to see that come to fruition."

Rooney mentioned one of those freshmen, Sydney Maxwell, who recovered from a failure to qualify in the 200 freestyle and recorded solid relay swims to help both North Stars freestyle relays qualify with Top 6 seedings.

"I've seen kids not go through at a sectional meet and crumble," Rooney said. "The way she stepped up and shined on those relays embodies a lot of things for me as a coach and her as a swimmer."

Guyett has three Top 6 individual swims and has finished second individually twice in the state meet and remains the team's strongest performer.

"The younger girls on the team look at Audrey an awful lot as a big-time role model," Rooney said. "She's quiet and fun and she's the ultimate team player. I think, as a team, we can shock some people, but we can't control what they do. All we can control is ourselves."

After three years of building, this is Bartlett-Streamwood's time to shine as a team at the state meet. The Sabrehawks qualified both freestyle relays and senior Kayla Filipek has high seedings in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Add senior Brianna Cichon and freshman Sydney Kelly and the team has the potential for its highest point total in the finals.

"Coming off an exciting sectional meet, we've carried the excitement into this week," Bartlett-Streamwood coach Jeremy Meserole said. "They're bouncing off the walls and eager to go. Those who have been there before know what to expect. They just have to go do what they've trained to do."

Filipek is seeded sixth in the 50 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle and this weekend caps her career. For Kelly, this weekend is her first state meet experience, but Meserole feels she will cope with the pressure well.

"For our seniors, it's the culmination of four years of hard work," Meserole said. "They accepted this vision and it's something we've talked about on a very regular basis, how we are building this team and this program to something beyond just the people in the room while we are talking. We look poised to continue what we've started."

Should the Sabrehawks score either of their relays, a spot in the Top 10 could beckon.

"We came just shy of scoring a relay last year and we're looking to do that this year. This team has taken its through process to where we want to score as a team rather than just as one or two individuals," Meserole said.

St. Charles East battled through the St. Charles North sectional and qualified its 200 medley relay as well as individuals Amy Pearson, Mary Jania, Anna O'Malley and Kayla Jones.

"I like the blend and the makeup of the personalities," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We'd like to put some points on the board and get into that Top 20. We don't have high expectations, but we want to swim well, score well and have a good time."

Of the Saints' swimmers, the highest seeding fell to freshman Jania, who is seeded 7th in the 100 breaststroke and 15th in the 100 IM.

"I sure like her persona," Cabel said; "I think she swims for the fun of it and for the chance to swim with her teammates. Perspective is a very important part of anything that you do. If you're not doing it for fun, it's not easy to do. It's the same as how I say I never went to work a day in my life because I loved what I did. She's never ever not wanted to come to practice."

Jones, a junior, is seeded 12th in the 100 backstroke.

"I think she started out slowly and she meant to do it that way," Cabel said. "She's come on at the right spot of the season. She's got a good lane and a good heat and she's anxious to race. She had a grand plan for the whole season. She had one big meet in mind, and this is it."

Crystal Lake coop junior Valerie Tarazi is poised for another solid weekend at the state meet. She is seeded second in the 100 breaststroke and fourth in the 200 IM. West Aurora sophomore Gina Jenkins qualified in the 500 freestyle, the school's first state qualifier since Jackie Iglesias swam in the 2010 state meet.