Stars battle best, take 5th
St. Charles North welcomed a slew of state-ranked swimmers to its eighth annual invite on Saturday afternoon, and Angie Chokran was up to the challenge.
Stevenson turned back Hinsdale Central for the team title behind four individual champions, but Chokran paced the North Stars' fifth-place finish.
The breaststroke specialist was second in the 200-yard individual medley and later duplicated her runner-up status in the 100 breaststroke.
The North Stars' sophomore was also on a pair of relay teams that placed Saturday in St. Charles.
"Today I felt a lot better in my IM," said Chokran.
"The way we've been training, I've been happy with all my swims. I knew I was going to be racing some top state swimmers and I wanted to get some experience against them. I wanted to beat them."
Glenbrook South edged Homewood-Flossmoor for third place, and the North Stars were solo fifth with 207 points.
Chokran began her day by teaming with Taylor Reynolds, Jessica England and Jennifer Clay to give the North Stars a third-place result in the 200 medley relay in 1 minute, 53.83 seconds.
Two events later, Chokran battled Stevenson two-event champion Ashley Wanland in the individual medley, only to lose ground over the final 50 yards.
Chokran and Wanland faced off once again in the 100 breaststroke, where Chokran held an early cushion.
But Wanland took command later in the event, and Chokran had to settle for another second-place result after turning back Lincoln-Way East senior Rachel Japp in 1:07.42.
The North Stars' quartet that placed third in the medley relay then finished its day in the meet-closing 400 freestyle relay, where the foursome was fifth in 3:49.08.
England was seventh in the individual medley relay, and Reynolds was sixth in the 100 backstroke.
"It's October now, so it's the hard part of training," said Reynolds. "We're stepping it up in practice."
The North Stars' Upstate Eight Conference rival Neuqua Valley was seventh on the day, and the final local squad in the 13-team field -- West Chicago --tied for 10th with Sterling.
For Neuqua Valley, the Wildcats' Jeannette Nolte paced the team with a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly.
The sophomore was timed in 1:00.33, ninth-hundredths slower than champion April McKee of Stevenson.
"I think I did pretty good considering all the work we've done this week," said Nolte, who also teamed with Andrea Belter and Lauren and Lindsey Pierce to claim seventh in the 200 medley relay. "The last 25 (yards of the butterfly), I gave it all I had."
Neuqua Valley coach Jennifer Heyer-Olsen had more stringent standards for her team.
"It wasn't a very uplifting day," said Heyer-Olsen. "We have to get a little more focused on how we want to finish the season. It's up to the girls."
Kelly Dunn was the headliner for West Chicago; the freshman paced the Wildcats with her fifth-place effort in the 50 freestyle.
"I was a little disappointed," said Dunn. "I thought I could have done a little better."
"We got a little wide-eyed and frightened behind the block," said West Chicago coach Nick Parry. "We finished much higher than I thought. We have aspirations of going to state and trying to score."