After state meet heartbreak, Barrington bounces back
Halfway through Barrington's 200-yard medley relay in Friday's girls swimming state meet preliminaries, a collective gasp went up in the crowd as the unthinkable had happened.
It looked like the Fillies' top-seeded team had "jumped," or left the block too soon, on the exchange between the breaststroke and butterfly legs.
After the race had finished, the dreaded letters "DQ" flashed on the results board next to Barrrington's name, confirming the bad news for the Fillies.
Never mind that Jacqueline Holdsberg, Emily Fogle, Anne Jacobsen and Erika Elliott had produced the fastest time in the state this year. They'd been disqualified.
And with that, in the meet's first race, away went Barrington's hope for a state trophy at New Trier High School.
"We talk a lot about character, how important that is," said Barrington coach Jim Bart. "Unfortunately, we had to prove it today."
And they did it by swimming fast in the rest of their events.
Fogle was the next Barrington swimmer in the water and qualified for the championship finals of the 200 IM in a team-record 2:06.03. She later had a 23.6 leadoff split on Barrington's 200 freestyle relay, which also advanced to the finals, and finally put herself in perfect position to defender her 100 breaststroke state championship by winning in a team-record 1:02.27.
It's safe to say the moments after the medley was disqualified was the low point of the meet for Barrington.
"Let's just say we let our emotions show," said Fogle. "That was really tough for all of us to take. But you know what? Coach Bart said we could take that emotion and try to let it motivate us for the rest of the meet, and I think we did that."
"When something like that happens, there are really only two things you can do," Bart said. "You either let it affect you in a bad way, or you use it to help you turn it around and allow you to swim the way you're capable of swimming.
"It was rough way to start. The rest was pretty good."
Both the 200 and 400 free relays had perfect exhanges. The 200 free relay of Fogle, Kate Valentine, Jacobsen and Elliott produced the fourth-fastest time of the day. The 400 free relay did not advance to today's action but improved on its sectional time by nearly two seconds.
Senior diver Anna Etherington got the Fillies' day started nicely by making the top 12. She'll produce three more dives in today's session, with a clear opportunity to move up.
Fogle and the rest of the Fillies are looking forward to making their last day of the season a memorable one.
"We approach the state meet like it's two meets," she said. "The first day is one meet, the second day is another meet. We're just going to do our best to make the second day the best it can be."
No other suburban Cook County swimmers will be in action on Saturday, but their will be another diver, junior Mallory Fisher of Palatine. The Mid-Suburban League champ has the eighth-best score entering the final three dives and is assured of scoring points for the Pirates.
In the team race, Rosary produced a dominant performance and is positioned to claim its fourth straight championship under coach Bill Schalz.