Big finishes help out Buffalo Grove

Buffalo Grove wrapped up its Mid-Suburban League girls swimming slate in its own pool with the kind of meet the Bison seniors won't soon forget.

Hosting a very competitive group from Rolling Meadows, the Bison won the majority of the close races, which made all the difference in Buffalo Grove's 103-82 victory Thursday. That wrapped up a 4-1 record against East opponents for the Bison, equaling the team's mark last season.

"We knew coming in that this one would be tough," said BG coach Tom Mroz. "Monika (Chiapetta, Meadows' coach) has a real nice group this year, and on paper, we both knew it could either way."

Sophomore Sara Fasching won the 100-yard freestyle (56.54) and the 100 back (1:05.66) and also had legs on the Bison's winning 200 medley relay (2:00.77) and 400 free relay (3:51.52). Her anchor leg on the 400 summed up the meet, as the BG quartet came from behind to edge Meadows' Maddie Conlin, Lauren Checchin, Neeka Szacilo and Vicky Vockeroth by 25 one-hundredths of a second. Earlier this year at an invitational hosted by BG, the same Meadows group had beaten the Bison.

Angela Rodriguez won the 100 fly and the 100 breastroke, and senior Nicky Delaney won the 200 IM and took second in the breaststroke for BG.

"It was a great night for us," said Delaney, who also had legs on BG's 'B' medley, which placed second, and on the victorious 400 relay. "Everybody knew this would be a really close meet, so especially coming through in the close races was what we needed. Sara did a great job for us at the end."

Meadows, meanwhile, considered the meet an opportunity lost.

"Overall, we've really had a great year, but our times just weren't there tonight," said Chiapetta.

Distance standout Szacilo won the 200 and 500 freestyles, and Vicky Vockeroth won the 50 free. But too many close races, and especially the relays, just didn't go Meadows' way.

"Hey, it's OK," said Chiapetta. "As I reminded the girls, this is not necessarily the night to swim fast. Everyone's working hard - we'll be ready to drop time a little later, that's all."

Hersey defeated Elk Grove on Thursday to complete an unbeaten dual meet mark in the MSL East. BG finished with 1 loss and Rolling Meadows had 2 losses.

• Palatine's Katy Jo Peters, Nicole Huffman, Lauren Hedstrom and Monica Dorszewski won the 400 free relay in 4:04.63 to help the Pirates pull out edged Conant 95-91. Individually, Dorszewski won the 500, Katie Brown won the 100 free, Nicole Theis won the 50, Stephanie Hamer won diving, and Huffman won the 100 fly. Conant had an individual winner in Courtenay Raymond in the 100 breaststroke.