Neuqua Valley wins UEC crown again
As talented as the Neuqua Valley girls swimming team is, it can survive a disastrous start against a tough Upstate Eight Conference field.
The Wildcats won the league meet with 294 points, outdistancing second-place St. Charles East's 252 and third-place St. Charles North's 228. Host Waubonsie Valley was fourth with 186.5 points.
The Wildcats were disqualified in the afternoon's first event, the 200-yard medley relay, a setback they spent the next couple of hours working to overcome.
“More than anything, I was just really impressed with the girls and how they rebounded from the medley relay,” Neuqua Valley coach Mac Guy said. “The medley relay has been a little bit of our signature event over the last few months, and to have them disqualify themselves in spectacular fashion but then stay light-hearted about it and come back and swim real fast in the next race showed a lot of courage.”
Megan Childs won the 50 freestyle as well as the 100 breaststroke for the Wildcats, the latter impressing her coach with about a two-second time drop.
“This is going to be a good confidence booster for her, and she deserves it because she's been working hard and she's made some real crucial adjustments to her stroke to make her successful today,” Guy said.
Emma Smith won two individual events for St. Charles East to go with a first place and a second place in relays.
“Emma's talented. No doubt about it,” St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said of Smith, noting she has a good chance at winning a couple of state medals.
Rooney was content with his own team's performance.
“Lauren Zima and Jennifer Clay definitely pleased me,” Rooney said. “I give them the ‘A' award. Everyone else is just a solid ‘B' today. It's not a taper meet for these kids, so I'll take the solid ‘B.' We as a team truly need to sit down and realize what they're truly capable of. They've got to figure it out here.”
Metea Valley, with no seniors, placed fifth with 148.5 points. South Elgin was sixth at 76, followed by Lake Park at 74, Bartlett's 65 points and the Elgin-Larkin co-op with 18.
“They did really well considering they're not tapered,” South Elgin coach Denise Bourgoin said of her swimmers. “I've been working them the past couple of weeks. We had some personal bests for the year, which is great going into sectionals.
“I was really pleased with all the girls.”
The Storm's Lindsey Hegarty and Veronica Gross each had lifetime bests in the 500 freestyle.
“It was really good to see that. They're just going to get better and better,” Bourgoin said.