St. Charles North swimmers win first UEC title

St. Charles North's girls swim team knew it had done well at Saturday's Upstate Eight Confernece meet.

In fact, the North Stars were aware they were in one of the top two spots in the standings coming away from a thrilling 400-yard freestyle relay.

Yet as they sat there listening, they were somewhat unprepared for what they heard - thus their excessive surprise when they found they were conference champions, edging Neuqua Valley 269-265.

"It's really cool," St. Charles North freshman Allie Smith said. "I've never been part of a team like this. Everybody's so close. They're always cheering each other on and positive. That helped us win."

Heading into the final relay, St. Charles North carried a 6-point lead on Neuqua Valley. Waubonsie Valley, sitting third in the team standings, put together a very strong race and won the conference title. Neuqua Valley was second and St. Charles North third - but the Warriors win was all that was needed to give the title to the North Stars.

The title is the first for St. Charles North after a number of years of series of solid seasons.

"It was a good meet," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "I thought we did a good job today. We didn't have a whole lot of big time drops. We talked at the beginning of the year about believing in ourselves, and they did."

Jessica England won the 200 freestyle relay for the North Stars while Angie Chokran claimed both the 200 individual medley and 100 breastroke titles.

"We had some luck go our way and we had some bad luck go our way," Rooney said. "We definitely have got a couple of weeks left to work on some things. But it's awesome to win the conference for the first time."

Allie Smith had a solid meet as a St. Charles North freshman. She finished third in the 50 freestyle and anchored the North Stars second-placed 200 freestyle relay - performances that brought postmeet praise from Rooney.

"We had a hard training week and had never done well at this meet," Smith said. "That makes it exciting."

St. Charles East finished fourth in the eight-team meet and showed that it is starting to rev into action for the IHSA Sectional, which comes in two weeks at St. Charles North.

Emma Smith was second in the 200 individual medley, just ahead of teammate Kayla Scott. Smith won the 500 freestyle and scott later finished second in the 100 breaststroke.

"We were 24-of-28 season bests," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "It was a good day. There are a couple of little things we can work on. We had a bright spot with Kayla (Scott) and Emma (Smith) today."

Cabel said the Saints needed such a breakout meet entering "Championship Season," which culminated in the state meet Nov. 21-22 in Evanston.

"We needed to," Cabel said. "We needed to get going. We were kind of in a doldrums. Conference comes for us at the right time."

Neuqua Valley was first or second in the meet from the time Taylor Eggenberger and Lauren Mikulecky finished 1-2 in diving. The other Wildcats champions was Jeanette Nolte in the 50 freestyle, though Neuqua Valley piled up a considerable amount of points by always being near the top in every race. Neuqua Valley had to overcome the dislocated shoulder injury suffered by Carly Schlupp in training this week.

"(St. Charles North's) girls came in here wanting to win the meet and they got it done and we didn't," Neuqua Valley coach Jennifer Heyer-Olsen said. "Whether we have a swimmer out or not, we couldn't get it done."

Heyer acknowledged that the conference was very deep this year.

"We have a number of nice swimmers in this area," Heyer-Olsen said. "It's nice to have this kind of competition for the girls heading into the final part of the season."

Waubonsie Valley helped create plenty of drama prior to the 400 freestyle relay, but the back half of that relay - Shelby Daeschner and Elena Carvell, had superb races as they raced down Neuqua Valley.

"We put the relay together like that knowing it was pretty strong, especially the way (Daeschner and Carvell) swam today," Waubonsie Valley coach Tom Schweer said. "I said when (Daeschner) dove in, 'here we go, here's the chase.' That got us back in the race and (Carvell) finished it off."

The Warriors, like all area teams, are warming to the task of postseason swimming.

"This is a good conference," Schweer said. "There isn't an event where you don't have a potential state finalist in it. That makes it exciting."

Carvell won the 100 butterfly and Daeschner the 100 freestyle while Julia Carroll won the 100 backstroke. Add a sweep of the relays and there was plenty of good news from Warriors swimmers.

"We were up and down, a little roller coaster ride," Schweer said. "We've got a couple of girls who you can tell are feeling the effects of the training right now."