Rosary goes fast to win its 'sectional preview'

Officially, the title of the event at Marmion's pool on Saturday was the Rosary Swim Invitational.

But the subtitle every one of the coaches over every one of those teams mentioned at some point in discussing the meet was "sectional preview."

That was because the teams involved were the host Beads, Neuqua Valley and both Naperville North and Naperville Central -- all teams which expect to make Neuqua Valley's sectional one of the fastest in November.

"We were joking about that in the coach's meeting," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "We'd like to get some more teams here, to fill in some of those racing gaps. But it's a nice, short meet."

But this is still September, and Rosary's invitational brought challenges of its own. The hosts won the meet, with Neuqua Valley second. Naperville North was third and Naperville Central fourth in a meet punctuated by across the board fast times.

"This meet's fast enough, and there are enough quality swimmers here, that you do have to get up and race," Schalz said. "There weren't many blowout races. I think if this meet was a month later, we'd see two, three or four state qualifying times in every event."

Rosary's Kara Savegnago won the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 freestyle while Olivia Scott won the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly. The Beads also won the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. But Schalz said there were a number of other swims that pleased him as well, including Emily Clark's victory in the 100 backstroke.

"While our top kids, they do their thing," Schalz said. "But for us to repeat as state champions, we need those second swimmers to fill in. I was excited more for those second and third swimmers to get up there and have some great swims."

Neuqua Valley's Kathleen Paterson won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. But the Wildcats showed a solid effort in the water following a morning workout at their home pool.

"One of the main things I was impressed with was that several of them are starting to deal with the challenge of training hard and racing at the same time. It's real easy to get swept up in the idea of being tired, and you hear that way too much from swimmers -- and they forget they still have to get up and race," Neuqua Valley coach Jennifer Heyer-Olsen said.

Rosary's invitational lasts just under 2 hours. Heyer-Olsen said she had the team more prepared for the swift nature of the morning.

"It was new for them last year and new for me," Heyer-Olsen said. "We were able to prepare them mentally for what was going to happen today."

Kristin Lynch provided Naperville North with an individual event champion when she won the 100 breaststroke.

The Huskies have only been competing on Saturday the past two weeks, and have focused on their early-season training.

"We've gotten two full weeks of training in, and it is starting to take its toll," Naperville North coach Katie Toennis said. "They're tired and it's great that it's over early so they can rest and do homework. They're dragging, which is kind of good."

Naperville Central was without the services of Amy Prestinario, who was on a recruiting visit. But the Redhawks punctuated the end of the meet when Erin Lamb, Julia Barclay, Vanessa Hendrix and Heather Gardner won the 400 freestyle relay.

"It's a great meet to come to, to see what the competition is going to be like," Naperville Central coach Jon Carlson said. "It's going to be very, very tough. A short meet like this, where you're not getting much rest, I was happy with that last relay. They managed to hold on with tough swims."