Waubonsie Valley girls make strong first impression

Waubonsie Valley's girls swimming team made a pretty good impression in its first meet of the season.

Intense focus and hard work during practices paid immediate dividends for the Warriors, as they claimed the top spot in Saturday morning's Neuqua Valley Invitational in Naperville.

Waubonsie Valley posted a score of 308, good for a 15.5-point victory over Neuqua Valley. Saturday proved to be a two-horse race, with St. Charles North earning third place at 207.50.

"I was pleased. Overall we had a really nice day," Warriors coach Tom Schweer said. "It's actually the first meet, period, that we've had this year. The kids have been beating up on each other since the start of the year, so this was a good way to start off.

"We said when we got off the bus that this is our first meet, so there's no such thing as a bad swim today."

Schweer admitted he wasn't quite sure what to expect in his team's first action of the year, and aside from some minor technical issues, he was pleased with his team's performance.

"I really didn't know what to expect. We've been going pretty hard and the kids are pretty sore right now," a smiling Schweer said. "Our weight program is kind of ramping up a little bit - and there was a lot of moaning and that kind of stuff."

"Just coming back and being able to win it felt really good," Warrior Julia Carroll said. "(Winning) is going to be a good outlook for us, and hopefully later down in the season when we come closer to sectionals and state, hopefully we'll be doing a lot (better)."

Wildcats coach Jennifer Heyer-Olsen used Saturday's meet as a training event for her squad.

"To me it's not a big meet. It's a training meet for us," she said. "What I mean by that is that we trained all the way through the week, we've got seven new girls on the varsity squad of 16, and they came in here and gave the best effort that they possibly could."

Downers Grove South placed fourth, capturing a riveting 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:38.22. Notre Dame finished fifth, preceding Wheaton co-op, Plainfield Central and West Aurora.