Meadows showing improvement

For two years in a row, during this century, Rolling Meadows' swim team was on top of the pack in the Mid-Suburban East.

But the Mustangs' program wasn't very deep, and as each star swimmer graduated one after another, the team wasn't able to keep up with emerging East division teams like Prospect, Hersey and Buffalo Grove.

Meadows' numbers are still down this season, but the program intends to become very competitive in the division again in the near future.

"We're very young," said Rolling Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta after her team finished eighth in the 11-team Buffalo Grove Invitational last Saturday. "Eleven of the 17 on the team are freshmen and sophomores.

"We're young, but we're very into swimming and we do have to do better."

In order to get better, Chiappetta has tried a different approach to training this fall.

"We did dry land workouts this year," the coach said. "That's really made a difference."

It has for one returning star, senior Jackie Pesenko.

"She's on fire," Chiappetta said. "She's swam the 100 breaststroke today and she also swam off-events (the 200 and 500 freestyle) and got her lifetime bests. I've been coaching her for eight years."

Two new freshmen who Chiappetta foresees good things from are Gina Vockerorth and Maddie Conlin.

"They're very, very good additions to our team," Chiappetta said. "They're very dedicated to the team. I'm very glad to see how hard they're working. Gina wants to go to state. She's just so young and everything is so new and I think that makes a difference."

By example: Hersey is relying on its seniors, but not just to pile up points on their own.

"We have a lot of senior leadership," said Hersey coach Rob Lindgren after his team won the Buffalo Grove Invitational. "The freshmen and sophomores we have swimming up with us have been completely affected by the seniors."

One of those seniors is Nicole Gill, a multi-state qualifier who won the 200 IM (2:18.88), 100 fly (1:01.64) and was part of the winning 400 yard freestyle (3:52.73) at the BG Invite.

"This year we've added three really quality freshmen," Lindgren said. "Everyone one else moved up. We're definitely stronger and deeper than at this time last year."

Two of the top freshmen are Christine Rovani and Erin Cunningham.

"They're adding to our versatility."