St. Charles North, East seniors enjoy 'friendly competition'

If Polaris is in the St. Charles North pool area, you know it's something special. And the big polar bear was indeed on-deck, along with a drum line, on Thursday to help the North Stars celebrate their Senior Night.

The meet had even more significance as it was the annual St. Charles North-St. Charles East duel in the pool, the latest renewal of a rivalry which is very friendly because both team's swimmers compete for the same club team.

North had the upper hand when the meet ended, winning 100-86.

"I've kind of been waiting since my freshman year, seeing everyone do it," St. Charles North senior Jessica England said of her Senior Night experience. "I was really excited that we were going to do it tonight, for our East meet. They're our friends. We swim with them all the time. It's not like a rivalry. It's friendly competition."

Time moves quickly for most high school athletes. Today's seasoned senior was a wide-eyed freshman seemingly not very long ago. For this year's swimmers, the season has just over one month to go, even less for swimmers not involved in sectional or state meet competition. The brevity of the rest of the campaign makes the culmination of what's already been accomplished seem all the more acute.

"Looking back on past Senior Nights, I was always the first to say 'I can't to be up there and to be a senior who gets their flowers at dinner and makes their speech and all that goes with it," St. Charles North senior Angie Chokran said. "Now that it's finally here, it came quickly actually. It's crazy."

Certainly both teams wanted to win their respective races. But swimmers from both teams could be seen having chats during warmups. "We train together in the summer," England said. "We all kind of know each other and it's really fun."

This has been a successful season so far for St. Charles North, with a first-ever victory over Neuqua Valley being one of the highlights.

"There are definitely more good things to come," Chokran said. "I have a lot of faith in this group of girls. I think we can test the limits of where St. Charles North has gone before."

Athletes like England and Chokran are just part of the reason for optimism at St. Charles North, which is, in general, a veteran group as it prepares for the final big meets of the season.

"I'm really excited to see what our team pulls off this end of the season," England said. "Most of our team has been to the (state) meet before. We have a couple of freshmen, but generally, we're all veterans."

This season has been anything but a disaster at St. Charles East, and the Saints were competitive in all races on Thursday. The gap between the teams was small throughout the meet.

"I think we rise to the occasion even though both teams were tired," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We had some good swims. We're moving in the right direction in some places. In other places, we're not moving and I'm not sure what's going on."

Cabel said his sectional lineup is now set, with the goal now being to bring that group to peak performance by the time the conference and sectional meets take place.

"There's a lot going on for us this week with the crosstown rivalry and homecoming," Cabel said. "We had some good swims and we're moving in the right direction."

With the training at its most intense in mid-October, the East-North meet always challenges athletes who want to show well with a full gallery of fans and friendly rivals on the opposite side of the deck.

"You want to see that but they are beaten down and maybe that's an unrealistic expectation across the board," Cabel said.