St. Charles North wins UEC on final race

Describing Hannah Olsen's swimming performances for St. Charles North as anything less than "electric" is to do a disservice both to electricity and Olsen.

The North Stars senior lit up the Upstate Eight Conference meet from the first individual event - the 200-yard freestyle. Swimming in the second of three heats - often termed the "slow heat" - Olsen produced a 1:58.05 time, finished third and sent a charge through everyone on-deck, especially her teammates.

"It was actually quite surprising because I wasn't feeling that well this morning because we're still really pounding in the yards," Olsen said. "We're not even close to taper right now. It was a really fun race, because I don't get to swim it that often."

Later in the meet, Olsen swam the 500 freestyle - another race she does not often swim - and finished second.

"My coach said to go out with (Monica Guyett) and kind of stay with her," Olsen said. "I was like 'oh wow, that's going to be hard. But I looked and she was right there and I was like 'woah.' It was great to be able to swim next to her."

Those tremendous swims aside, the meet still came down to the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. As the teams prepared for the race, fans and noncompeting swimmers from both teams chanted back-and-forth, in the way they would for an East-North dual meet.

"It's always nice to have a meet come down to the 400 free relay," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "The kids on the relay said they didn't want it any other way, and that they'd take care of business. That's a great attitude to have on that relay."

Though the teams were close through the first leg, but the North Stars progressively pulled away and won the race in a pool record 3:33.98 to claim the conference title. Samantha Sauer, Monica Guyett, Olsen and Audrey Guyett made St. Charles North's relay quartet that sealed St. Charles North's conference title. The final point differential was 257-251 in North's favor.

"It's just a really good prediction for how the rest of the season's going to go," Olsen said. "There's a lot of talented girls. We're not all the same age, but it feels like we are because we're all focused on having these big goals and doing it together."

St. Charles North had a series of other top finishes. Monica Guyett won the 200 freestyle in which Olsen finished third. Guyett also won the 500 freestyle in which Olsen finished second. Audrey won the 200 IM and was second in the 100 freestyle. Sauer was second in the 50 free and second as well in the 100 backstroke.

"We swam this meet a little differently," Rooney said. "Some of our kids weren't in their best races, but that's really the only way we could compete with (St. Charles East.) If we went straight-up with our best swims against their best swims in a championship meet like this, it probably would have been the other way around."

St. Charles East's quartet of Amy Pearson, Katie Nagler, Jordan Morling and Anna O'Malley finished a strong second in 3:38.80 to cap a solid second-place finish in the meet.

"Those guys looked great in there," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We had a great leadoff by (Pearson) and all four of those girls did well. That was a great time for us."

The two St. Charles schools kept separation from third-place Neuqua Valley throughout the meet.

"Our kids looked tough today," Cabel said. "We had a great week of practice and we kind of showed it a little bit today."

St. Charles East had an event winner in Morling in the 100 backstroke. The junior also finished second in the 200 IM. Nagler was third in the 100 freestyle, Pearson placed second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 500 freestyle, Izzy Herb was third in the 200 IM and also third in the 100 backstroke and Lucy Johnson was fourth in the 100 butterfly, and Kayla Jones was fourth in the 100 breaststroke.

"(Herb) probably had the best meet today," Cabel said. "Across the board, we struggled a little bit today, but sometimes conference comes in the middle of everything."

O'Malley had a strong meet as well, finishing third in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 freestyle.

"It's the middle of the season and practices have been really hard," O'Malley said. "They're just going to get harder. I thought we did really well today considering how everyone's feeling. I am actually pretty happy with how I swam, considering how I felt."

Though tired, the Saints made up ground in the back half of the meet on the North Stars, pulling even with Jones' breaststroke performance, which was enhanced by a sixth-place finish by Johnson.

"They battled really well today," Cabel said. "I'm not sure we had a drop today, but it's not a meet to have drops. It's a meet to swim through and then to get ready for sectionals."

The two St. Charles schools have meet twice this season. East won the schools' dual meet and North won the conference meet. On Nov. 15, the Saints and North Stars battle at North in the IHSA Sectional.

Saturday's meet was the final meet in which all varsity swimmers will be unrested for top teams. Some swimmers will rest and taper their workouts in preparation for the sectional meet in an attempt to qualify for the state meet. Others will time their taper for the Nov. 21-22 state meet at Evanston. Regardless of tapering, all teams will now attend to starts, turns, finishes and other little things that can trim precious postseason time.

"This helps us focus for sectional," Cabel said. "We've got some things we've got to work on that were pretty evident today. I'm sure the kids will be ready for practice on Monday."

The West Chicago-Batavia coop finished seventh and had a series of solid results. Lindsay Bruce was sixth in the 200 freestyle and seventh in the 500 freestyle. Myanna Cook was eighth in the 100 butterfly and sixth in the 100 backstroke. Lindsay Bruce was seventh in the 500 freestyle and Natalie Nelson was seventh in the 50 freestyle.

"This meet is kind of at a rough part," West Chicago coach Nick Parry said. "We right where everybody's either starting their taper or finishing their regular season stuff. (Friday) night, at the JV meet, that was almost like a state meet because those kids were shaved and tapered. For these kids, this is almost like a regular meet."

Still, Parry saw things he liked from his swimmers.

"We're tired and beatdown and we had some good swims and some bad swims," Parry said. "(Nelson) is right on her 50 free time. But it's a really strong field coming here. There's six or seven good teams, and I'd consider us at the bottom of that group. It's a loaded field."

In its first Upstate Meet since return after nearly two decades in the DuPage Valley Conference, West Aurora finished eighth.

"After finishing last most every year in the DVC, it's nice to move up a little bit," West Aurora coach Chris Ranallo said. "We had some good swims, time-wise, and a few drops. We're right where we need to be going into the sectional in the next two weeks."

Annika Ness finished 10th for the Blackhawks in the 100 butterfly.

"She's right where she needs to be," Ranallo said. "She was a little hard on herself over her time, which she can be at times. But she's right around where she needs to be with it."