Girls swimming and diving: Blumenfeld's record day sparks Hersey to sectional title

To the folks in charge of updating pool records at area high schools:

Relax. Or exhale a "phew."

You deserve the break.

Hersey senior diver Ally Blumenfeld has only one more prep meet, and it won't be staged at a high school. The Iowa State University-bound board maven amassed 509.65 points to take down yet another pool mark at Saturday's Barrington girls swimming and diving sectional.

That ups her total to 8 - 8! - pool records in diving this fall.

Elite, indeed.

The future Cyclone gets to wow spectators at next weekend's state meet at FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

"Strong, so strong, with great air awareness and equilibrium," Huskies diving coach and sectional diving coach of the year Tom Schwab said of his two-time All-American.

"I'd say, right now, she ranks among the Top 50 high school divers in the country."

Hersey's Huskies topped the 10-team sectional on Saturday, totaling 217 points behind 5 event championships and 3 other state-qualifying efforts. Barrington finished second (200), followed by Buffalo Grove (170.5), Fremd (152), Crystal Lake South co-op (145) and Lake Zurich (130).

"This morning I told them, 'Go fast,' " Hersey swim coach Dick Mortensen said. "There wasn't much else for me to say, because they'd been training hard for this all season. They missed this, missed this badly last year, the opportunity to compete one more weekend, and now they'll have it. The pandemic took something away from them in 2020."

Huskies junior Maggie Papanicholas captured a pair of individual titles (200-yard IM, 2:06.28; 100 breaststroke, pool-record 1:01.46) and helped the squad's 200 medley relay take first with a school-record time of 1:45.21 (with classmate Brooke Martin and seniors Mollie Lumsden and Ashley Oiler).

"Adrenaline was our team's theme today," Papanicholas said after joining her teammates and coaches and the championship plaque for a post-meet dip. "We swam with a ton of adrenaline. You know what? It's still flowing."

The other two-event champion Saturday was Lake Zurich senior Olivia Dorshorst, a former St. Viator Lion who touched first in the 200 freestyle (1:50.15) and in the 500 free (4:55.3) and felt right at home in the Fillies' water - she's a Barrington Swim Club member, after all.

The Illinois-bound Dorshorst, a soccer goalkeeper in her pre-swimming days, didn't start swimming seriously until the middle of eighth grade. The Bear was only 20 percent tapered Saturday.

"So good, so fast," Barrington junior Jenna Kerr said of Dorshorst.

So was Kerr. The future Iowa Hawkeye sped to a pool-record 50.65 in the 100 free and swam on a pair of victorious relays (200 and 400 free) with classmate Lauren Holman and seniors Lilian Reader and Emily Bucaro. The quartet motored to a pool-record 1:36.93 in the 200 free and supplanted another pool mark with a 3:28.81 in the 400 free.

"They mash," said Fillies coach Alex Mikolajewski, who earned sectional coach of the year honors for the fifth year in a row.

Other championship swims Saturday: Lumsden (100 backstroke, 56.61); Fremd sophomore Katie Kuehn (50 free, pool-record 23.25); and Prairie Ridge sophomore and CLS co-op member Avery Watson (100 butterfly, 57.78).

Buffalo Grove received state-qualifying swims from five entrants, beginning with its runner-up showing in the 200 medley relay (1:46.62; senior Emilia Jedryka, sophomore Gianna Gagliano and juniors Reese Frighetto and Victoria Surdyka).

"When that medley relay hit, all I was thinking was, 'Oh, let's go,' " Bison coach Michael McPartlin said. "We rode momentum from there."

They said it:

Fremd swim coach Andrew Kittrell, on 50 free champ Kuehn, who also qualified for state in the 100 free (2nd, 51.33): "She's a big-time swimmer, for sure. Loves the competition. I told her before the 50, behind the blocks, 'Take a deep breath and have some fun.' "

Crystal Lake South co-op coach John Valentine, on 100 fly champ Watson: "Such a smart, hardworking athlete. We swim the 200 fly for time in practice, so when they get here and swim the 100 fly, it's easy."

Valentine coaches Barrington's boys swimming and diving team in the winter.

Q factors:

Other Barrington sectional state-qualifying swims: Hersey's Lumsden, Papanicholas, Oiler and senior Natalia Plewa (3rd, 200 free relay, 1:37.43); Lumsden (3rd, 200 free, 1:52.13); and Plewa (3rd, 100 breaststroke, 1:05.74); BG's Jedryka, Surdyka, Frighetto and senior Olivia Bochnak (2nd, 200 free relay, 1:37.27); Frighetto (4th, 50 free, 24.14); Jedryka (4th, 100 free, 52.67); and Surdyka (5th, 100 breaststroke, 1:06.17); Barrington's Reader (2nd, 200 free, 1:51.67); Bucaro (4th, 200 free, 1:53.1); Kerr (2nd, 50 free, 23.46); Reader (2nd, 500 free, 4:55.8); and Bucaro (3rd, 500 free, 4:57.56); Woodstock North seniors Hannah Blaksley (3rd, 50 free, 24.02) and Haley Halsall (4th, 500 free, 5:08.95); Marian Central Catholic junior Tessa Jones (4th, 500 free, 1:06.06); and Richmond-Burton senior Eleni Gewalt (2nd, 100 breaststroke, 1:04.11; 3rd, 100 free, 52.67).

Quick laps:

Cary-Grove sophomore Maggie Bendell (484.15) and Fremd freshman Que Genet (season-high 481.35) went 2-3 in diving Saturday. Genet earned an impressive 60 points on her front-2.5-tuck (2.4 degree of difficulty). ... LZ's Dorshorst and Barrington's Reader - Barrington Swim Club teammates - exchanged fun, goofy looks during the awards' presentation after the 500 free Saturday.

Lake Forest sectional:

Reigning North Suburban Conference champion Stevenson garnered more hardware, racking up a meet-best 277 points to runner-up Libertyville's 200. The Patriots' 400 free relay of Hana Wienckowski, Sophia Berger, Milena Busma and Abby Collins won in 3:30.08, and divers Eleanor Kowalski (534.05) and Shreeya Sinha (481.6) went 1-2.

Among the other champions at the NSC-heavy sectional were Warren senior Grace Bevers (200 IM, 2:07; and 100 back, 55.66); and Libertyville sophomore Georgia Kahler (100 breaststroke, 1:03.77).

Junior Isabella Ramos of reigning Central Suburban League North champion Vernon Hills qualified for state in the 200 IM (2nd, 2:08.04) and in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.86). Cougars senior teammate Emily Zhang took fourth in the 100 butterfly (state-qualifying 57.05), and diver Alyse Lichtenstein, another VH senior, posted a strong score of 458.05 (4th place).

Mundelein junior Riley Routledge finished sixth (state-qualifying 1:06.44) in the 100 breaststroke.

Stevenson's state crew will also include the squad's 200 medley (Jennifer Chen, Amy Andres, Busma and Collins) and 200 free (Wienckowski, Izzie Gattone, Katie Makarska and Claudia Rzeznik) relays.

Two Libertyville relays - 200 medley, 1:45.02; and 200 free, 1:36.2 - get to race at state next weekend. Kahler, Sofija Tijunelis, Sarah Wuh and Logan Howard swam on both units.

New Trier sectional:

Maine South finished fifth (124 points) behind sophomore Sophia Szymanski's state-qualifying efforts in the 200 IM (1st, 2:08.77) and 100 back (4th, 57.68).

Downers Grove South sectional:

Schaumburg (177 points) finished runner-up to perennial power Hinsdale Central (291). Saxons seniors Madison Dohrn and Nina Mollin each zipped to a pair of event championships - Dohrn in the 200 free (1:53.84) and 100 back (55.43); Mollin in the 500 free, 4:57.1; and 200 IM, 1:53.84). Freshman Zuzanna Krasnicki topped the 100 free field in 52.53 and clocked a third-place and state-qualifying 23.97 in the 50 free.

Schaumburg also advanced to state in the 200 medley (2nd, 1:45.06) and 400 free (2nd, 3:31.33) relays. Dohrn, Mollin, Krasnicki and freshman Annabel Banicz collaborated in the 200 medley, and Mollin, Krasnicki, Dohrn and senior Danielle Alley combined swift legs in the 400 free.