Girls swimming and diving: Hersey makes history at MSL meet

Saturday's Mid-Suburban League girls swimming championship meet came down to the penultimate event, the 100-yard breaststroke, and Hersey coach Dick Mortensen knew that he had two outstanding competitors racing in Maggie Papanicholas and Natalia Plewa.

"Maggie and Natalia work really well together, they practice a lot together, and they push each other," said Mortensen. "Those two knew going in that if they won, we were in a great position (to take the title)."

Ultimately, all that practice, hard work, and camaraderie paid off for the Huskies, as Papanicholas won the breaststroke in the time of 1:03.50, while teammate Plewa placed second at 1:07.03.

The duo's 1-2 performance lifted Hersey to their first MSL championship, and according tor Mortensen, the first overall crown for an MSL East team.

The Huskies outscored Barrington 233 to 224, with Schaumburg placing third with 182 points at the Hoffman Estates-hosted meet.

"This has been a long time coming," said Mortensen. "We got two scores today in just about every event. Barrington and Schaumburg gave us quite a run. All credit to them, they pushed us and pushed us. They are two classy schools and they're very well-coached.

"I started coaching in 1998, and like I told the kids today, I feel like this (his first conference title as coach) is my unicorn. I finally found my unicorn."

Ally Blumenfeld gave a big assist to the Hersey victory by winning the diving event with a score of 517.35.

Barrington's relay team of Jenna Kerr, Emily Bucaro, Lauren Holman and Lilian Reader were victorious in the 400 free relay in the time of 3:32.79, and the 200 free relay (1:38.13).

Also winning for the Fillies were Reader, a senior, in the 200 free (1:52.55) and the 500 free (4:58.48), and junior Jenna Kerr, who triumphed in the 50 free (23.91) and the 100 free (52.20).

Sophomore Katie Kuehn of Fremd gave an outstanding effort, finishing second in the 50 free (24.22) and the 100 free (53.52).

"You don't really have time to think, you just go through the motions," said Kuehn of the process racing in the 50 free. "Your body knows what to do so you go out and do your best."

Kuehn said that she gets a lot of inspiration from her older sister, Sophia, a 2020 Fremd grad who now swims for Ball State University.

"I would watch her, I would listen to what our coaches would tell her," said Katie Kuehn, "and I apply that now to my races."

"Katie is a wonderful kid, a very coachable kid," said Vikings coach Andrew Kittrell. "She's bought in to everything we've asked her to do.

"I feel like we quietly had a great day under the radar," Kittrell added of his team, which finished fourth overall at 169.

Outstanding runner-up swims Saturday came from Bucaro of the Fillies, second in the 200 free (1:53.19) and the 500 free (5:04.99); Papanicholas of Hersey, second in the 200 IM (2:11.01); Mollie Lumsden of the Huskies (58.92) in the 100 back; and Kayla Puchitkanont of Conant in the 100 fly at 59.49.

Buffalo Grove's Victoria Surdyka finished third in both the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke, Elk Grove's Kyle Rittle was third in the 100 fly, while Yugene Shin of Palatine took the same placement in the 100 back.

Schaumburg's third-place team finish was paced by wins from Nina Mollin in the 200 IM (56.19), and the 100 fly (56.19).

Also excelling for the Saxons were Madison Dohrn, who won the 100 back with a mark of 56.72, and the relay team of Dohrn, Mollin, Annabel Banicz and Zuzanna Krasnicki, victorious in the 200 medley relay.

The Saxons set an MSL conference record in the 200 medley in the time of 1:47.49.

"We came in relaxed, ready to go, and ready to have fun," said Schaumburg coach Tim O'Grady. "I feel like is the first meet where we had everybody (the entire roster) racing, and everyone came out and supported each other.

"I had a feeling that whoever won the 200 (medley relay) today would set the conference record," added O'Grady after the Saxons just out-touched runner-up Hersey. "Madi (Dorhn) just rocked it on the backstroke and got us in front, Nina went 28.92 in the breaststroke which is extremely fast, and Annable did a great job holding off Hersey on the butterfly.

"Then it came down to Zuzanna, our freestyler, and I knew she wouldn't be caught. She's an amazing freshman and she had an outstanding meet today."