'Phenomenal swims' lead Libertyville past Warren

The Libertyville girls swimming team drew a tough schedule to open the season, facing some of the state's top squads in Stevenson, Lake Forest, New Trier and Glenbrook South.

So the Wildcats were well-prepared to compete against North Suburban Conference rival Warren on Tuesday.

The Wildcats featured the top finisher in nine events en route to outscoring the Blue Devils 112-73 to capture their first dual-meet win of the season.

"I let them swim some different events than we've been swimming for the last month," said Wildcats coach Greg Herman. "And what we found out is maybe those aren't their off events. We had some phenomenal swims. They're responding well to training, and this was a good day all the way around."

Freshman Whitney Mitchell continued to perform well for the Wildcats (1-4, 1-2). She grabbed a quick lead in the 100-yard butterfly and swam to a win in 1:01.43. In the 100 backstroke (1:02.87), she stayed close the whole way before pulling ahead late to edge Warren's Ally Calewarts (1:03.06).

"Right up until her race, she was talking about being sore and tired," Herman said. "Then she put down two really great swims. We must have a national law that Whitney Mitchell will not lose if she's close to you. She did a great job and had a great finish in that backstroke."

Senior Dana Davidsen won both the 200 individual medley (2:17.23) and 100 breaststroke (1:10.13) for the Wildcats, who claimed the top three spots in diving behind Megan Stubbs (187.45), Brittany Tazzioli (182.65) and Allison Tillman (133.50).

The Wildcats picked up a pair of relay victories. The quartet of Sarah Cull, Maggie Boling, Mitchell and Emily Ott won the 200 medley by more than four seconds (1:59.51), and the 400 freestyle squad of Mitchell, Taylor Rogers, Melanie Blair and Cull closed the meet with a win (3:54.15).

Freshman Kaitlin Amedio won a big race in the 100 freestyle (59.18), narrowly edging Warren sophomore Rita Nelson (59.35). In the 500 freestyle, Ott pulled ahead on the last lap to win a close race with a time of 5:30.04.

"That's not a race she's real familiar with, and she might have had too much left at the end," Herman said. "But she swam a well-paced race and put it away in the last 25. That was exciting, and it was fun to hear the fans getting so into it."

For Warren, junior Kristen O'Connor delivered in the 200 freestyle, edging Taylor Rogers 2:02.33 to 2:02.50. And she finished a strong second in the 500 with a time of 5:31.03.

"In her 200 free she swam really strong and swam a smart race," said Blue Devils coach Erik Rogers. "She didn't go out too fast, held to her game plan and put together a good race. In the 500, she had a good race. Emily caught her on that last 50, but that was still a solid swim."

After trailing early, the Blue Devils team of Calewarts, Nelson, Laura Chou and O'Connor (1:46.43) won the 200 freestyle relay by just three-tenths of a second. And in the 50 freestyle, Warren (1-2, 0-2 NSC) had the top two finishers, with Nelson (26.35) winning and Calewarts (27.17) edging Ott for second.

"Ally Calewarts had her best swim of the year in that event and looked really good," Rogers said. "And Rita Nelson, who's a newcomer this year but has really shown us something, was a nice surprise. That was a great swim for both of them."

Warren -- which has 12 sophomores and juniors and no seniors this season -- also got season-best times from Megan Matheny in the IM (third, 2:25.41), Calewarts in the backstroke and Chou in the butterfly (second, 1:05.66).

"It's nice to see the younger kids stepping up, winning events and swimming well," Rogers said. "That's only going to make us stronger as the season goes along."