Great day to be a Saint at College Events
The St. Charles East College Events girls swimming invitational has an usual twist to it.
The distances are doubled from their typical lengths, meaning the races are more grueling on the participants.
"We're in the hardcore of our training," said Lake Park coach Dan Witteven. "The shorter stuff makes it mentally easier. That's why I like (the format) so much. This meet is real good for the girls, probably all the teams."
New Trier won the invitational Saturday afternoon at the Norris Recreational Center in St. Charles with 326 points, followed by Lake Forest.
But it was also a banner day for the host Saints, who used second-place finishes in the individual medley and 800-yard freestyle relay to break a late tie against Upstate Eight Conference rival Waubonsie Valley and take third place.
The Warriors, who had the lone area individual champion in junior Amanda Carvell, finished in a fourth -- place tie with Libertyville.
Lake Park was sixth, and Dundee-Crown was seventh.
"It was a great day to be a Saint," said St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel. "We came in to survive the meet. We have never really swam very well at that meet. Across the board, everybody as a whole swam well for us today."
Lillian Cabel and Diana Gehrman were the distance standouts for the Saints, finishing second and third, respectively, in the 1,000 freestyle.
Cabel, a junior, came back to duplicate her runner-up placement in the individual medley, and the Saints' overall team status was greatly enhanced when Kayla Scott placed fifth in the same event.
Cabel was timed in 4 minutes, 52.9 seconds for St. Charles East in the event.
The event-closing freestyle relay was extended to 800 yards, and the Saints' team finish was secured when the quartet led by Cabel and Amy Holmstrom came home in second.
Scott was second in the 100 breaststroke to match the highest finish for a St. Charles East swimmer, and Cabel was particularly pleased with the emergence of freshman Juliet Suess, who was seventh in the 100 backstroke.
Carvell was the star for the Waubonsie Valley squad as the junior was the only performer to break the minute-barrier in claiming the 100 butterfly.
The Warriors' junior was coming off an earlier second-place result in the 50 freestyle.
"(The winning time, 59.22) is a few seconds slower than what I was looking for," said Carvell. "I'm feeling like I should be feeling at this time of the season. The 50 free is so short that it's kind of a hit-or-miss kind of thing."
The Lake Park efforts were anchored by Lindsey Collins; the junior was third in the extended butterfly at 200 yards and duplicated the finish in the longer version of the individual medley.
Collins teamed with Jordan Van Wyk, Jamie Schingoethe and Kelsey Coleman to place sixth in the 400 medley relay, and Witteven also singled out the work of Sandra Gregor.
"I was happy with our girls," said Witteven. "I'm pretty happy with where we're at right now."