Barrington, Hersey in fine sectional form

It was a case of mission accomplished for both Barrington and Hersey in Saturday's girls swimming sectional meet hosted by the Fillies.

Barrington, with its focus on peaking in the state meet at New Trier, had a performance coach Jim Bart characterized as "decent."

An outsider might look at the same performance and call it "dominant."

The Fillies qualified all three relays, and claimed a decisive victory in the teams standings with 281 points.

Senior Emily Fogle produced her usual sterling efforts in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, winning both easily, and keying the medley and 200 free relays to big wins.

Junior Anne Jacobsen won the 100 fly and had legs on all three relays. Junior Jacqueline Holdsberg won the 100 back and had legs on the 200 medley and 400 free relays.

Sophomore Erika Elliott advanced with a second-place finish in the 50 free and had legs on all the relays. Sophomore Justine Kaszynski made it to state in the 100 fly, and diver Anne Etherington stands a great chance at advancing with an at-large berth after finishing third.

Freshman Danielle Elliott was a near-miss for state with a second-place finish in the 500 free.

"Sure, we had a couple of disappointment today," Bart said. "But I'm very pleased with how we handled that. Everybody was able to look at the positives."

The swimmers on Barrington's relays - Fogle, Jacobsen, Holdsberg, Erika Elliott and Kate Valentine - are saving their full taper for the state meet. Taking that into account, the Fillies remain on track to do their best swimming on the state's biggest stage.

"We got through what we needed to get through," Bart said.

Hersey had near-misses in both the freestyle relays, but on balance it was a day to remember for the Huskies. Coach Dick Mortensen found himself sprinting toward the starting area frequently, congratulating his swimmers on either personal bests of state qualification as Hersey finished second with 173 points.

Huskies freshman Amanda Petro advanced in both 200 and 100 freestyles. She placed second behind Palatine's Monica Dorszewski in the 200 and tied for first with Maine East's Natalia Bialecka in the 100 at 53.72.

Senior Kathryn Korff advanced in the 50 free (24.66) and just missed in the 100 free. And junior Christine Rovani punctuated a great day for Hersey by advancing in the 100 breaststroke in a lifetime best of 1:08.02, which tied her for third place with St. Viator's Stephanie Nolan.

Petro, Korff and Rovani will compete in their first state meet on Friday.

"We definitely exceeded expectations," said Mortensen. "We have a great group of kids, and they really delivered today."

In diving, Mallory Fisher of Palatine and Kate Reszotko of Hersey reprised their roles from the conference meet and finished 1-2, separated by about 3 points. After Etherington came Maine West's Jennifer Rey (362.15) and Prospect's Christina Pekar (346.95).

Palatine saw consistently huge time drops across the board and was rewarded with a pair of individual qualifiers in veteran coach Ed Richardson's last season of coaching the girls team. Monica Dorszewski said she was confident she'd advance in both her races, and she did, winning the 200 free in 1:55.43 and taking second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.46.

Her teammate, sophomore Nicole Huffman, missed advancing in the 100 butterfly by just a couple tenths of the a second. But she used the experience to motivate her for her next opportunity, the 100 backstroke.

"After the fly, I was just really angry," Huffman said. "I just tried to use that feeling to get me pumped up for the backstroke."

Another mission accomplished: She qualified in 59.45, more than a second under the state cut and not far off sectional champ Holdsberg (59.03) as the Pirates finished third with 134 points, just 1 ahead of Fremd.

Maine West junior Ailish O'Connell earned the right to compete once more by placing fourth in the 50 free in 24.75.

And Buffalo Grove freshman Veronika Jedryka took a quantum leap forward in the 500 free, winning in 5:09.66. That's more than 12 seconds faster that her season-best, and about 9 seconds faster than her previous lifetime best.

"It was a little faster than I thought I'd be at this meet," Jedryka said. "Now I'm just hoping I can go two or three seconds faster at state."

Bart and Richardson were named sectional co-coaches of the year, an honor chosen by the coaches.

• Schaumburg Sammy Schuckles earned a repeat trip to the state meet by placed third in the 100 backstroke in the St. Charles East sectional. Schuckles finished in 1:00.07.

• Elk Grove diver Christine Baldovin placed third in diving at the Downers Grove North sectional with a score of 322.85 but did not advance to the state meet.