Prospect makes most of Viator invitational
Conference dual meets, especially those in the Mid-Suburban East, are always entertaining and frequently come down to merely a few points to decide the winner.
They are almost always highly competitive and the swimmers and divers are determined to walk away with a victory.
But invitationals also have their importance. For the MSL, not only do they get to see teams from other conferences, they are also closer to the format of a sectional meet, the second most important meet of the entire season.
In Saturday's invitational at St. Viator, Prospect was eager to see Mother McAuley's team and would up finishing a close second to them, 354-323.
"They're always really strong," said Prospect coach Dick Mortensen. "We won the medley relay. That kind of put in our minds that we could swim with this team."
After the 500 free, Prospect was 12 points behind McAuley. But Sarah Sohn hadn't competed yet. Once the senior got into the water, she tied for first place with Jacobs' Amanda Podezerwinski (5:25.95).
Sohn was also part of the winning medley relay (1:59.71). Another highlight for the Knights was the 200 free relay, which finished second (1:45.84) by a second to McAuley behind Kelly Wilson, Molly Nordyke, MIchelle Schueler and Sohn.
The host Lions finished fifth.
"I think we were pretty consistent with what we've been doing," said St. Viator coach Adam Clemente. "This meet is a great one. We pulled from a great talent pool.
"I was very excited about our three freshmen, Stephanie Nolan (first in breaststroke, second in medley relay), Melanie Battaglia (second in breaststroke), and Kelly Schroeder. I think they're going to be the core of the team for the next few years."
Elk Grove placed eighth out of 10 teams, but first-year varsity coach Dave Toler still found some highlights in his team's performance.
"This is the first time we've been in a meet with multiple heats," said Toler, whose team finished in last place last season. "The girls realized they have to race everyone in every race.
"My distance girls were very happy with their times. For us, we're looking more for speed techniques, not just form techniques. Swimming a lot of laps right now is not to our advantage. We're doing split times. Some of them hit their marks. They expect to be competitive and this was a good start."
Other meets
At the Hoffman Estates invitational, the meet puts a premium on team depth. A team's No. 2 and 3 swimmers to earn big points toward the final team score.
And it was some of those second- and third-place swimmers for Rolling Meadows that boosted the Mustangs to 137 points and second place behind Maine South.
Maddie Conlin won both of her heats in the sprints -- swimming a 30.70 in the 50-meter free and a 1:09.18 in the 100 free.
The Hawks (88 points) took third and had a pair of individual firsts by Marta Borowy in the 200 (2:32.50) and 400 (5:16.86) freestyles. Diver Katie Deboo scored 182.30 points to win the top flight.
Wheeling's (64) Marissa Reeve won two in the fastest heats of the distance freestyles with her 2:24.75 in the 200 and 5:00.82 in the 400.
• Every swim mattered for Barrington, too. The Fillies narrowly beat Evanston 94-92.
Alexa Hamilton had two individual firsts for the hosts in the 200-yard IM (2:09.40) and 500 free (5:14.18).
The Fillies' quartet of Emily Fogle, Sara Fogle, Sam Simon and Kim Steelman took the 200 free relay in 1:40.39.