Wildcats have some fun, win invite

Six weeks before girls swimming sectionals seems like a perfect time to have a little fun before teams begin to taper for the postseason.

Getting out of the normal routine and swimming nothing but relays at Bartlett's Melanie Anderson Memorial Relays allows for a few more smiles and laughs getting out of the pool.

Of course, winning does that as well.

West Chicago won five of the 10 scored varsity races to capture the team title with 86 points Saturday. Oswego East finished second with 80, followed by DeKalb (68), Rolling Meadows (40), the Elgin/Larkin co-op team (32) and the Bartlett/Streamwood co-op (14).

"A lot of the girls say this is the best meet of the year. It may have something to do with them winning," Wildcats coach Nate Parry said. "There's not many times where you get to do a backstroke event where you dive off the block to start."

Kelly Dunn anchored the 400-yard freestyle relay that edged DeKalb by .07 seconds in the final scored event to help the Wildcats earn the title. She was joined on the relay by Caitlyn Madsen, Rachel Howe and Ania Skorupski. Dunn, Howe and Madsen each were apart of four of the winning relays.

"Kelly Dunn swam phenomenally, especially in that (400 free relay)," Parry said. "She swam a little bit better than she has in the last couple of meets.

"It was a great team effort the second half of the meet."

West Chicago also won the 600 free relay, the 300 butterfly relay, the 200 free relay and the 300 backstroke relay.

DeKalb and Oswego East won two events apiece. Rolling Meadows finished first in the 3x50+50 freestyle relay.

The Elgin/Larkin co-op team's best finish was second in the 300 medley individual medley relay. Victoria Bowers, Haley Ottaviano and Hilary Ottaviano finished in 3:30.40, about 11 seconds behind Oswego East. Elgin/Larkin also took third in the 200 free relay and the 300 backstroke relay.

Bartlett/Streamwood, the hosts, was third in the 850 freestyle relay. Heather Pohnan, Stephaine McGinnis, Kristen Steele and Katie Holte finished in 9:45.95.

"(The meet) is meant to be fun. Melanie meant it to be fun for teams to get together and have a fun relay meet, have different races," said Bartlett/Streamwood coach Nancy Schleicher, who swam with Anderson at Bartlett.