Barrington’s Elliott era draws to a close
It will be a very different outlook next season for Barrington’s girls swimming team, when the formidable Erika and Danielle Elliott sister tandem will finally be broken up.
The siblings who have helped define the area’s most successful program over the last three seasons compete together in a high school meet this weekend for the final time.
Erika, a senior, is among the top sprint freestylers in the state. She aims to make a grand exit from her high school career at New Trier on Friday and Saturday with the state finals. She has excellent chances to score points individually in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles as well as on the Fillies’ 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
Danielle, a junior, specializes in the 200 and 500 freestyles. A great effort in the 500 would also put her in point-scoring range.
Whatever the results this weekend, both sisters wish they had more time together.
“She’s my best friend,” said Danielle. “I don’t even like to think about next year because of that — it makes me sad. But we’ve got state ahead of us and we’re both focused on that.”
The Elliotts’ impact on extending Barrington’s run of 20 straight Mid-Suburban League championships is hard to overstate.
In this year’s conference meet, coach Jim Bart switched Erika Elliott into the 100 backstroke, her best event outside the sprint freestyles. She won the backstroke, and the Fillies have enough depth that they still won three relays and comfortably won the meet.
“I think the thing a lot of people don’t realize is how versatile they are,” Bart said. “It’s just not very common to have kids that are so strong across a range of events.
“It’s not only Erika in the backstroke — Danielle’s got a nice butterfly, and that’s come in handy for us a bunch of times.”
So, the Elliott partnership gets one last trial together this weekend against the state’s best swimmers. The sisters will race together on Barrington’s 200 freestyle relay, taking the third (Danielle) and fourth (Erika) legs. Erika will also anchor the medley relay.
Erika had the eighth-fastest 50 free performance and the seventh-best 100 free effort from last weekend’s sectional meets. And she’s already had the state meet experience individually, having placed eighth in the 100 free last year. At Evanston last November, she also delivered a time in the 50 free that would have placed her in the top six but was disqualified on a hotly contested false start ruling.
Her times in Saturday’s sectional were almost identical to her performances in last year’s state finals, so there’s every reason to believe she’ll hit some lifetime bests this weekend.
“I feel pretty good about where I am,” Erika said after the sectional meet Saturday. “To be able to go those times without wearing our fast suits and without a full taper — that makes me feel confident.”
Whatever the outcome this weekend, Erika’s future is settled — last week she committed to Northwestern, and she complemented her Fillies red with some Wildcats purple garb on deck during Saturday’s sectional meet at Barrington.
Any chance Danielle will follow her sister there?
“I guess we’ll have to see about that,” Danielle said. “But first things first.”