Girls swimming: Hinsdale Central responds to changes
Two months into the girls swimming season and in an effort to keep his team fresh, Hinsdale Central coach Bob Barber shifted things a bit at Saturday's St. Charles North Invitational.
Swimmers competed in different events and at different distances than usual in an attempt to help them avoid becoming stale by swimming the same events meet after meet.
The Red Devils finished second in the meet, though the host North Stars were comfortable 375.5-276 victors in the 14-team meet.
"We've done a really nice job figuring out which meets to attack and which meets to try to figure who might have our last space in the lineup kind of thing. Today wasn't our 'A' lineup by any means and the girls responded well," Barber said.
The grind in training showed in Saturday's times. Even the state's elite swimmers had trouble swimming faster than their seed times.
"They're really tired right now," Barber said. "It's mentally hard doing the same things and I want them to have that spark at the right times. Today was not the time to get them to come out and fire. With this lineup I was very proud of them."
The top Hinsdale Central finisher was Anna Gruvberger, who was second in the 200 IM and fourth in the 100 butterfly. Hollis Clark was fourth in the 100 backstroke and Anna Glowniak was fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
The West Chicago-Batavia co-op finished eighth and Nick Parry's team is going through the same mental grind as most teams with six weeks remaining before the state meet at New Trier.
"No matter what, when you put in all this work, you want to get something out of it," Parry said. "To come into a meet like this, with one of the best teams in the state in St. Charles North, you want to perform. Sometimes, that's just not going to happen due to the physical nature of our sport."
Top West Chicago-Batavia performances came from Kelly Sego, who was fourth in the 200 IM and third in the 100 backstroke.
Addison Trail-Willowbrook co-op's Elissa Haake was second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle.