No records for Waubonsie, just a meet title
The Waubonsie Valley girls swim team didn't break any records at Saturday's Trojan Team Challenge at Downers Grove North, but for the second year in a row the Warriors went home with the big prize.
In a meet that saw meet records fall in four individual events, Waubonsie Valley scored big victories in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay to win the team championship with 408 points.
"We knew that our freestyle sprinters are a strength of the team," said Elena Carvell of Waubonsie Valley, a member of both winning relays. "But seeing how well we did in the other strokes is encouraging. Winning this meet tells us that we're right to think that we have a pretty good team. That will make it easier for us to work even harder as we go into the weight-training part of the season."
Carvell, who was also a winner in the 50 freestyle, swam the butterfly on the medley relay and she was joined by Hannika Schleebs, in the backstroke, Samantha Jacobi who swam the breast stroke and Tyler Crittenden anchored the race in the freestyle.
The 200 freestyle relay team consisted of Carvell, Allison Szott, Crittenden and Shelby Daeschner.
Waubonsie Valley's Emily Kelly aided the team effort with a victory in the diving, scoring 271.85 points to top Downers Grove's South's Gina Picone, who scored 265.85.
"We're happy the relays won, but we're a little soft with times," said Waubonsie Valley coach Tom Schweer. "Like a lot of teams, we're pretty beat up right now. But we're looking for personnel. We want to know who's going to be there at the end of the season and who's the best fit."
Sarah Galvin of Benet, Meghan Bomicino of Downers Grove South, Adrienne Bicek of Downers Grove North and Sarah Walsh of Maine South were anything but soft with times that broke meet records.
Bomicino broke the record in the 500 freestyle in 5:04.31, as did Galvin who finished second in 5:05.08.
"It felt really good to break the record with my lifetime best," Bomicino said. "Sarah was right there with me and I needed to pull away. I wanted to win so bad."
Galvin went back in the water a short time later and set a new standard with a 58.86 in the 100 backstroke.
"I worked on my streamlines all week and they really helped me today," Galvin said.
Galvin and teammates Colleen Webb, Catherine Cortesio and Brigid Webb came up just short of the meet record in swimming a 3:41.52 to win the 400 freestyle relay.
Bicek went into the record book with a meet-record 1:55.61 in the 200 freestyle, finishing just ahead of Bomicino, while Walsh's 1:08.13 in the 100 breaststroke was also a new mark.
Bicek also won the 100 butterfly and teammate Haley Sims finished first in the 100 freestyle. Courtney Pope of Lockport took home the gold in the 200 IM.
Downers Grove South finished second in the team standings with 317 points, followed by host Downers Grove North with 310 and Benet with 283.