'Perfect day' for W. Chicago

It was impossible to miss Caitlyn Madsen on deck at Saturday's St. Charles North girls swimming sectional. She was the one with the permanent grin on her face.

And just what was it that initially had the West Chicago junior jumping up and down going "I'm so happy" and kept her pleased the entire afternoon? Well, the day started with qualification for the state meet in the 200-yard freestyle, continued with a qualifying time in the 100 butterfly and culminated with a pair of swims on Wildcats relay teams - both the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

"I'm going to be smiling the rest of my day," Madsen said. "All season, we've been doing so well. This shows how we've been working hard and everything."

The spark for the day was Madsen's freestyle race. She dropped just more than one second off her seeding time - which was already under the state-qualification standard. But the time drop meant she cruised to qualification.

"It's been the perfect day," Madsen said after the meet. "I got my 200 free state cut and I got my 100 fly state cut and then we got in both of our relays and we won both of them. So I'm really excited."

With the 200 freestyle out of the way, Madsen relaxed and smiled her way through the rest of the meet.

"The rest of the meet just came to me," Madsen said. "I was happy and not stressing out."

The last time West Chicago had a state qualifying relay was 2004, when Rachael Slattery was a senior. She and Jackie Vavrek helped power the Wildcats to state meet success in the early years of the 21st century.

"The last time we had a relay go to state was before I was at the school," Madsen said. "Now that we have two going, it's just amazing."

There was even more good news for the Wildcats. Kelly Dunn continued her superb sophomore season when she won the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. Dunn also swam legs of both Wildcats qualifying relays.

"I was really excited," Dunn said. "We're a really close team. We've been working hard all year. It was so neat that we could come to this meet and be cheering for each other in every race. It really shows that, if you come to a meet with the right attitude, you can accomplish anything."

Dunn has been swimming at a consistently high level all year, and that fact didn't change Saturday, when she dropped time in both her individual events on her way to a pair of sectional titles.

"I didn't want to say that I was going to qualify for state, because I didn't want to jinx it," Dunn said. "But I was pretty sure I was going to make it. I was more happy to see my teammates make it because it was their first time."

Dunn qualified in the 100 backstroke last year but did not advance to the finals, something she would like to change next week in Evanston.

"Hopefully, we do even better at state than we did here," Dunn said. "And next year is going to be even better."