'Make or break' month begins

When swim coaches and athletes talk about the critical nature of October training, sometimes there is a sense that August or September are easy months in the water, followed by a crunch in October.

Certainly the yardage increases as the season progresses and October is the hardest training month of the season. But there have been plenty of sore muscles through the early stages of the year.

There is no denying, however, that with eight weeks left before the state meet, the intensity is increasing.

"October is the month," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "It is make or break time. Many times, it's a tough time for the kids. We're starting to think about the end but we're not there yet. It's a bit of a challenge for them, but this is also the month for making or breaking your season."

Eight weeks may remain before Evanston hosts the state finals, but only five weeks remain for swimmers whose seasons end at conference meets. For teams that are emerging - and the Saints fall in to this category - a good October can be one key element in the soup pot that contains all the other ingredients to a good season.

"We got off to a good start and then struggled a little bit with Hinsdale (Central)," Cabel said. "We're getting in good shape and the girls are working hard. We have the good things going and our workouts are exciting. I'm really pumped after our workouts and I know it will pay off for them in the end."

Like every team, the Saints are a mix of veterans and newcomers. Newcomers to high school swimming can find the heavy workload to be an exercise in mental as well as physical stretching.

"There's some who have their eyes rolling back in their heads a little bit," Cabel said. "But nobody's stopped coming. We operate on one central theme. We have one team, no varsity and junior varsity, in training. Everyone's there in the morning and everyone's there in the evening. Everyone's bought into what we're trying to do. We're getting our training, our academics and our team social events all together. It's really been a great group of girls this year."

A group of juniors is making its mark this year, led by individual medley and breaststroke swimmer Kayla Scott.

"She's on the move," Cabel said. "She's a utility swimmer. She's really improved and picked all of her strokes up this year."

Cabel traces Scott's success to the summer, which he described as a "breakout" time.

"She was close to her national cuts," Cabel said. "A lot of times, this (high school) is actually created by your last season. Because she had a great summer, it's parlayed into a great start to the high school season."

In the sprint workout lanes, juniors Juliet Suess and Hayley Krzeczowski have been leading the way.

"They've been working hard and holding down our sprint work," Cabel said. "That sort of attitude is definitely contagious. You want those good things to be contagious."

There is excitement among the Saints divers as well. Junior Meghan Patterson is a move-in from Rhinelander, Wis., while fellow junior Megan Armstrong has also been heavily involved in the team's success.

"They've been duking it out for us," Cabel said. "There are some teams that don't have divers, and it's hard to overcome 13-0. That's a 26-point swing and they've been working very hard for us so far."

As impossible as it is to keep your eyes on the talented upperclassmen Rosary has on its roster this year, it's also not to miss the team's eye-catching freshmen.

Emily Launer, Sarah Sykstus, Katherine Hare and Rachel Burke have proved that they cannot only make the Beads varsity squad, but that they have talent to push for sectional spots.

And in saying that, this group of first-year swimmers finds itself in a spot to try to help the team win its third straight state title.

"We had a team meeting on Monday," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "We were talking about our four freshmen. I told our upperclassmen that if they get complacent, they run the risk of losing places they had before. I hate to bump upperclassmen, but we have an obligation to put our strongest team out there."

Schalz said the "year in school" category really becomes meaningless once a swimmer makes the varsity team.

"No, I don't look at them as freshmen," he said. "We don't have a 'freshman on the lineup' line when we put together our team for the state meet. There's a state meet lineup, and we want it to be the best we can make it."

The freshmen aren't this monolithic athletic block. They swim different events, for example, with Hare sprinting, Launer swimming distance events, Sykstus competing in distance events while Burke swims freestyle races and relays.

"They're all different, they all have different personalities," Schalz said. "But they're all good kids. We look for them to be leaders in the next few years."

In creating that sense of leadership, the young Beads are fortunate to have an established core of upperclassmen ready and willing to lead this year's team.

"There are a lot of similarities with our senior class and this freshman class," Schalz said. "When we had this group of seniors as freshmen, we knew they had the potential to help us for years to come. These freshmen have experience at their various area clubs. And they have come in and done very well for us."

Hare, Syskstus, Launer and Burke form the talented tip of a youthful iceberg that Schalz sees in training every day.

"We have some other freshmen who are JV swimmers this year who can be serious players by their senior year," Schalz said. "It is great for this freshman class to see the kind of senior leadership we have."

Underlying the success the Beads have had is their work ethic. They talked about it before the season and are showing in the middle of the season that they are willing to put in the work to accomplish things.

"Sometimes I compare what we're doing in the current season to what we did the year before," Schalz said. "You always tend to look at the last season through rose-colored glasses. But maybe that's one reason we've gotten better. Last year's team worked so hard. This year's team has worked hard to get to that level."

As the calendar turns to October, the Beads are like every other team, hitting training just that little bit harder.

"We tend to get a lot more specific at this time of the year," Schalz said. "We do a lot more speed work and a lot more power work. If you're doing quality work, even though you may be doing less yardage, the workout should be harder. From that standpoint, it's harder."