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Girls swimming: St. Charles North holds off Barrington

There was focus in the eyes of both teams on the Barrington pool deck Saturday, creating an atmosphere that was both intense and exciting.

After two consecutive losses to Barrington in prior seasons, St. Charles North was ready to bring its best performances against one of its toughest competitors.

The medley showed just how fierce this competition would be as relays across the board fought tirelessly in head-to-head battles for first place. The Fillies' medley team of Emma Pritchett, Catherine Kitzman, Lilian Reader, and Alyssa Schwengel snagged the win, posting an impressive time of 1:48.81.

Swimmers and divers from both teams pushed themselves incredibly hard. Every point had to be earned, with touch outs and comebacks a common occurrence during the meet. The meet came down to those second and third places, eventually leading to a close victory for St. Charles North with final score of 102-84.

Helping to pave the way for the North Stars were Caitlin Suda with her individual wins in the 50 free (24.26) and 100 free (52.98) and Megan Armstrong with her individual swims in the 200 free (1:54.16) and 100 back (57.97).

Victories in both free relays also helped assure St. Charles North's victory with the 200 free relay team of Rachel Ponte, Suda, Sydney Maxwell, and Armstrong getting a time of 1:37.99 and the 400 free relay team of Mallory Jump, Suda, Kayleigh Lewis, and Armstrong anchoring again to receive a time of 3:34.38.

"I had some good swims and the team did really well", Armstrong said, "We had a little pep talk to get us going and our goal was to win." Armstrong continued by stating how the North Stars had been nervous for this meet, but they were excited to be racing against a fast competitor.

"We just wanted to give it our all," Armstrong said.

As the North Stars move deeper into their competitive season they are going to keep up the positive energy and give each meet their best effort.

Coach Rob Rooney was very content with his team's performance.

"Barrington is a fast team," he said, "and they really do race well, but my team really stepped it up."

The Fillies also had many fantastic swims and dives showing that they still have a lot to prove this season. Maggie Graves had a commanding lead in the 500 posting an impressive time of 5:03.03. Kitzman also had a phenomenal breaststroke race and fought hard to stay ahead of the competition receiving a time of 1:07.41.

Helping keep things interesting was Barrington's diver, Anna Mae King, who had a fantastic diving session and placed first scoring 262.72 points.

Reader and Kitzman were proud of their team's performance.

"St. Charles North really is one of our toughest competitors and this was great insight into where we are at in the season," Reader said. "We really stepped it up and raced."

"We have high hopes for this season and this year," Kitzman said. "We want to score higher in the top ten at state this year."

The Fillies had many swims to be proud of and will try to keep their spirits high as they continue toward their goal of placing higher at state this year.

"The girls really worked together as a team and for the first time this season worked as a cohesive unit," said Barrington coach Alex Mikolajewski. "We'll push past tough days and get up and race when we need to."

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