Girls swimming: St. Charles North takes own invite

This is the time of the girls swim season when the mental side of the sport comes to the fore. Athletes have been working for two months and yet their times aren't showing tremendous improvement. The battle to remain positive with one month still to go is something all teams have, though some are working better with it than others.

St. Charles North hosted its annual invitational on Saturday, and the North Stars emerged as comfortable victors, scoring 375.5 points to second-placed Hinsdale Central's 276 points in a 14-team competition.

"We swam last night (against Oswego) and then swam today, and I like that," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "I like that back-to-back format, the state meet kind of scenario."

The North Stars won the 200-yard medley relay, and the 200 freestyle relay. Audrey Guyett won the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, Megan Armstrong was the winner in the 200 IM and the 100 freestyle, Kayleigh Lewis was first in the 50 freestyle, Mallory Jump won the 100 butterfly.

It was the series of second-, third- and fourth-place finishes that keyed the large North Stars victory. In the 200 freestyle relay, the North Stars had teams that finished first and second.

"We are a very deep team, probably the most talented team I've had top to bottom," Rooney said. "The girls are extremely positive with each other. There are always hurdles, but these girls are doing an excellent job with it."

Two years ago, the North Stars finished third in the state meet and this year's team figures to be one of the teams to be in the team race again this November.

"Gauging against other teams in the state, I still think we've got room to go. We've got to raise our bar," Rooney said.

Bartlett-Streamwood finished a strong fifth in the meet, and got notable performances from Sidney Kelly, who was second in the 500 freestyle and from Kellsie Krisch, who set a school record and was second in the 100 breaststroke.

"We're in the last third of the season and we've had invites every weekend for the last month," Bartlett-Streamwood coach Jeremy Meserole said. "We; re at a point where we want to have a plan and execute the plan and we'll judge them based on how they execute the plan and not necessarily on the result."

Those strong individual performances give the Sabrehawks hope entering the final month of the season.

"This is right up there in terms of in-season swimming with where we were last year. We got some good swims. I think we're accomplishing the things we want to accomplish," Meserole said.