Girls swimming: Mundelein’s Willis shows her versatility at NSC meet

Imagine a beefy lineman returning a punt 90 yard yards for a touchdown.

Or a svelte sprinter winning the shot put at a track meet.

Now you know, more or less, the kind of day Mundelein junior Amelia Willis had at Saturday’s North Suburban Conference girls swimming meet at Zion-Benton.

The swift Mustang won two off-events — the 50-yard freestyle (24.13) and 100 butterfly (57.67) — to pace her team’s third-place showing. A water dart in the 100 backstroke and 100 free events at most meets, Willis was on fire in the off-races, earning 20 points for each victory.

“Oh, yeah,” Willis said when asked if the win in the 50 surprised her. “I wasn’t very good in my details (breathing pattern and turn, among others) after my start. But I had fun; I always do at this meet.

“It’s fun to race in events I normally don’t swim.”

Willis’ launch off the block in the 50 free was electric and powerful, forcing the rest of the sprinters to play a desperate game of catch-up. She then touched the wall eight-tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Madison Southwell (58.47) of Libertyville in the 100 fly.

“Amelia is an elite swimmer,” Mustangs coach Rahul Sethna said of the 10th-place finisher in the 100 back at last year’s state meet. “The great start she had in the 50, that took pressure off her. Then, to win the fly in her second off-event of the day, good for us.”

Eight-time reigning NSC champion Stevenson, meanwhile, was pretty much on-point from the start — on Friday night, when the diving segment was staged at the Patriots’ natatorium in Lincolnshire. Stevenson’s Lada Volkov amassed 460.25 points to top the field.

Coach Art Kasemets’ swimmers then took first in 6 of the 11 events at Zion-Benton on Saturday. Sophomore Aria Grossenbach set a meet record on her 16th birthday, clocking a non-tapered 1:50.91 in the 200 free to supplant the 1:51.58 that former Mundelein star Erin Falconer had recorded in 2013.

Grossenbach also won the 100 back (57.93) and helped the Pats’ 400 free relay zip to a first-place 3:33.25. Donovan Shay, Vanessa Miecznikowski and Amanda Martuszewski swam the other legs.

“I just tried to swim as fast as I could,” Grossenbach, holding a large tray of birthday mini-cupcakes, said. “My teammates impressed me, especially Karina Zakabluk (first place, JV 50 free, 24.97).”

Stevenson’s Anika Donovan won the 200 IM by nearly 3 seconds. Teammates Amanda Chang and Claire Wang captured gold in the 500 free (5:13.95) and 100 breaststroke (1:06.9), respectively, as the Patriots claimed their ninth straight NSC title with a 424-point showing.

Libertyville took second (380), followed by Mundelein (326), Warren (284), Lake Zurich (202), Lake Forest (187), Zion-Benton (120) and Waukegan (73).

Libertyville won 2 of the 3 relays, with junior Annie Lock powering through illness to anchor both units (200 medley, 200 free).

“I had a fever (Friday),” the Wildcat said after collaborating with Elle Klotz, Ellison Shafer and Southwell in the 200 medley (1:48.24) and Courtney McCall, Maya Anderson and Shafer in the 200 free (1:38.95). “I’m maybe 70 percent today. My mentality (as anchor) was to go for it, to try hard to hit the wall first.

“I didn’t have to look up at the scoreboard to know that we’d won each relay. As soon as I saw my teammates jumping behind the block, I knew.”

McCall contributed 20 more team points with her first-place 52.79 in the 100 free.

“Courageous effort,” Libertyville coach Greg Herman said of Lock’s locked-in swims. “She … raced. All of our relay members swam well. They all love to race, and they’re all (wired) like that, which is awesome.”

Warren received third-place efforts from diver Alayna McCormick (415.65) and Elin Ackron (100 back, 1:00.13).

“We hadn’t eased off any training,” Blue Devils coach Samantha Korstanje said of most of her crew. “Those that did taper for this meet swam lights-out.”

Lake Zurich’s Megan Thornton finished fifth in the 50 free (24.86), matching teammate Anna Czosnyka’s place in the 200 IM (2:19.43).

Neither Bear had raced in a prep swim meet this fall until Saturday.

“I told them, ‘Swim fast, have fun,’” LZ coach Jill Kragseth said.

Other runner-up results included Stevenson’s Cassidy Carlborg (diving, 438.15); Shay Donovan (200 free, 1:54.03); Stevenson’s Kate Motl (200 IM, 2:13.47; 100 breaststroke, 1:07.32); McCall (50 free, 24.28); Stevenson’s Linnea Florin (100 free, 53-flat; 100 back, 59.78); and Martuszewski (500 free, 5:21.87).

Additional third-place efforts included Mundelein’s Gracyn Gigiano (200 free, 1:58.3); Martuszewski (200 IM, 2:13.91); Lock (50 free, 24.31); Anika Donovan (100 fly, 58.71); Stevenson’s Nelli Sander (100 free, 54.17); Libertyville’s Madison Moss (500 free, 5:26.91); and Shafer (100 breaststroke, 1:08.61).

Swimmers and divers vie for state berths at sectional meets next weekend.