This group knows it is ready

Ready or not, it's time for girls swimming and diving sectionals.

Actually, forget the "or not" part of that - because athletes all over the state have worked since late August to be ready for Saturday's meets, which are the sole qualifiers for the state meet.

St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney quipped that he'd be able to answer the "ready or not" question late in the afternoon on Saturday, after the North Stars have finished hosting their sectional - in a field that includes St. Charles East.

"You can never answer those questions until after the meet," Rooney said. "You just have to make sure everyone's positive and happy."

Rosary and West Aurora head to Neuqua Valley for their sectional meet. Swimming starts at 1 p.m. at each site.

Rooney's team has been successful already in "Championship Season," claiming a first-ever Upstate Eight Conference title.

"We've had some good swimmers and some great teams in the past, and it's kind of ironic to have a team as young and relatively green as this year's be the one to win conference," Rooney said. "But that doesn't mean we have an easy weekend coming up. I don't think we really thought about winning the conference until we had our meets with Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua (Valley) and then got ready and thought we had a shot at it. I think this was the first time we were racing to win something instead of to finish second."

The dynamic for what constitutes success changes on Saturday. Each swimming event has a time standard. Event champions and all others who finish faster than that standard qualify for the state meet. Diving champions also automatically qualify. Other divers qualify if their score is high enough when compared to all divers statewide.

"We have a young team and a green team and they're kind of oblivious to some of the pressures," Rooney said. "It's actually great. It's very reminiscent of the first years when we started out with young kids and great attitudes."

Juniors such as Angie Chokran and Jessica England are among the in-water and on-deck leaders for the North Stars. But asked if he'd like to get a bus, instead of a van headed to Evanston for the Nov. 21-22 state meet, Rooney's response was similar to every coach in the state.

"You always want to load up the bus to go to Evanston," he said. "That should be every team's goal. Right now the goal should be to swim fast. We want to get ready and then to let it go with the medley relay. We'd like to qualify more people than we did last year and we've got an opportunity to do that. We have a great shot with our relays. You always want to get the bus going to Evanston."

St. Charles North hosts the meet, which can be a headache for Rooney, who is charged with running the meet. But the setting is perfect for the North Stars, who will be most familiar in the pool where they train and compete all season.

"We've got a great group of people to run the meets," Rooney said. "My whole thing is to make sure everything's taken care of beforehand. It's our home and our environment and there is a familiarity to it."

If there is one team that is as familiar with North's pool, it is St. Charles East. Not only do the Saints compete every other year in the North Stars pool in a dual meet, they train in the off-season as often at St. Charles North as they do at their own Norris Center pool.

"We love for it to be at North," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We were fortunate enough to work out there last week. It's a confidence boost for us."

The Saints finished fourth in the Upstate Eight meet and are like one of those Triremes in Ben Hur, building and building until they reach ramming speed as their taper hits.

"Things have gone right," Cabel said. "We've been healthy. We've had our tough moments in the season but we showed a spark at conference. I think between (assistant coach Mary Dauw) and I, that we've got it dialed in. We've got 50 years of experience between us. We should have it down by now."

Cabel said he treats every season as a unique entity and deals with each taper in the same manner. Tapering is the process of resting following a sequence of overly-intensive training. As the body rests, the positive effects of the training combine with the rest to produce large time drops.

"I know there are some people who use the same workouts day by day from the year before," Cabel said. "I have never done that. Your clientele changes every year and their musculature is different and their mental attitude is different. If I did everything the same for Hayley (Krzeczowski) as I did for (2008 grad Caitlin Dauw), I don't think we'd be very successful. You have to tailor it for what you have each season."

The Saints have high-end swimmers in Krzeczowski, a junior, as well as junior Kayla Scott and freshman Emma Smith.

"They are young kids but they're pretty seasoned," Cabel said. "We've got other kids who have done well too. We've got great leaders in (Krzeczowski and Scott.) A lot of kids have stepped up for us this season. It's the end of the season, and I feel very good about what our girls have done."

Rosary enters the pool at Neuqua Valley aiming to take the first major step toward its third straight state championship. But with freshmen Rachel Burke, Sarah Sykstus and Emily Launer on the sectional lineup, there is significant new blood in the water for the Beads.

"When we talk about the state meet, they get a little starry-eyed," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. "They know the expectations are high. But we have a process that has worked for us in the past."

One step in that process is for the older girls on the team to help along the youngsters. The Beads have plenty of senior leadership in swimmers such as Kara Savegnago, Elisabeth Tavierne and Kally Fayhee.

"A lot of it has to with the fact that we have upperclassmen who have been there before and know what this is all about," Schalz said. "So when we talk about the expectations and the sophomores, juniors and seniors are all nodding their heads, the freshmen are like 'great, I'll just follow those guys.' If our older swimmers are freaking out, the younger kids will freak out. If they get the job done, the younger ones will too."

Although the overall speed of the Neuqua Valley sectional is a bit down from recent years, it remains one of the fastest sectionals in the state.

"I like our sectional," Schalz said. "I like the fact that you're going to have the best competition. I don't want us to be complacent in our sectional. We have potentially four of the top six butterflyers in our sectional. We have three of the six finalists returning and other girls who are going to be competitive too. You always want to win your races, and you know if you win your races at our sectional, you're going to be in good shape for the state meet."