Everyone’s rested and ready to go
After overtraining since August and performing for 10 weeks in various levels of exhaustion, the state’s elite swimmers have finally rested in preparation for this weekend’s state meet at New Trier.
As a result, there’s a lot more energy on-deck, energy that will explode in the water in today’s preliminaries and continue through Saturday’s finals.
“You can see it building,” Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. “You can feel the energy building in practices. They’re dying to put music on so they can dance.”
The level of work has been extreme. The best swimmers work year-round and the best teams train very hard in and out of the water prior to this final tapering of workloads that creates large time drops when executed properly.
“I always get fired up for state,” St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. “I told the girls the other day at practice that this was their 86th day in the water and their 139th practice and that they had put in 544,000 yards. So we’re ready. This is the March Madness of swimming and we’re definitely into it.”
Friday’s prelims splice the qualifying field into 12 finalists in each of 12 events. On Saturday, swimming events take place between the top six in each event for the state title and the bottom six compete in the consolation final. Diving brings back the 12 finalists on Saturday for a final series of dives. Team points are only counted on Saturday.
And the setting for the state meet is always compact. New Trier’s pool-deck does not have a warm-down pool, so swimmers are packed on three sides, with fans seated above on three sides, cheering over those swimmers as they compete. The atmosphere, especially for Saturday’s finals, is guaranteed to be electric.
“I love championship season,” Schalz said. “This is the fruit of everyone’s labors. This is where all the work, all the training, where it all bears fruit. I look forward to it. I just love watching fast swimming.”
No team has had more success since 2000 than Rosary. The Beads won the state title four straight years from 2006-09, have not been out of the Top 5 and have brought 9 trophies back to Aurora from those 11 state meets. This year, the Beads would like to add another trophy to that list after finishing third in 2010.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good team,” Schalz said. “I think it’s going to be a really close meet this year and I think there are five or six teams that can get trophies. New Trier is clearly the favorite, but we expect them to show up and swim and I am sure they expect everyone else to go to their pool and get up and swim. We want to do everything we can to put pressure on them.”
The nature of swimming is that there’s nothing Rosary can do to stop New Trier from piling up the points if the Trevians are ready to swim fast.
“We have to go there and know that we can’t play defense,” Schalz said. “We have to play offense and just look after ourselves. If New Trier has a great meet, they can score 200 points and run away with the meet. But I told our girls that we can’t worry about that. We can only take care of ourselves.”
Rosary takes a very experienced group to the state meet. Seven of the Beads’ competitors — swimmers Emily Launer, Rachel Burke, Sarah Sykstus, Katherine Hare, Molly Coonce, Taylor Harris and diver Grace Miller are seniors. They are joined by freshmen Erin Hart and Kate Canfield.
“Our seniors have been great leaders and have done a great job getting the freshmen ready,” Schalz said. “We want to win the state meet and I don’t believe in going in there expecting to get second. We have a daunting task with New Trier, but we want to win the state meet.”
The talent in Illinois swimming is spread through many teams this year. The Beads have top-end talent in Coonce, who won the 100 breaststroke in 2010. But as with all teams, a consistent series of top swims is what will propel Rosary to whatever place it finishes this weekend.
“We have six or seven girls who can score a lot of points,” Schalz said. “Molly Coonce won for us last year, but we could win the team title without winning an event, and I think New Trier is the same.”
One wild card for the Beads is Miller, who was 13th in diving last year and just missed being the first Rosary diver to score points at the state meet.
“She’s been diving really well,” Schalz said. “She seems to be peaking right now and we’re really confident in Grace doing well.”
The first event after the diving break is the 100 butterfly. Illinois is one of the fastest prep swimming states in the U.S. and the fact that only 12 swimmers make finals and 6 swim for the state title enhances the competitive level in every race. But this year’s butterfly could be one of the toughest races in which to make finals — and the Beads hope Coonce and Sykstus can improve on their pre-meet seedings of ninth and 11th, respectively.
“The fly is a really tough event this year,” Schalz said. “There are a lot of girls in that event who can go Top 6. I think a lot of girls moved into it this year thinking it would be a soft event, and now having all those talented kids there has made it one of the fastest events.”
Pre-meet seedings don’t count for anything other than potential bragging rights. St. Charles East’s Emma Smith has the top seed in the 200 individual medley and is seeded second in the 500 freestyle. But if you’re looking for bragging, look elsewhere.
“She’s one of the most-focused swimmers I’ve coached,” Cabel said. “She’s got some room still to go though. Everyone’s going to get faster. Her times are good, but there are better ones to be had. I think she’s definitely ready.”
St. Charles East finished 10th a year ago, the school’s best finish since the Saints took 10th in 2001. Powering the team’s hopes of another Top 10 finish are their relays, especially the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
“Our relays are finally ready to go,” Cabel said. “We had our drag suits on last weekend. This week, we’ll put on our fast suits and see how fast we can go.”
Cabel mentioned others on his team are now fully tapered and ready for the state finals.
“Izzie Bindseil is a fireplug and fun to be around,” Cabel said. “I don’t think the well is dry for her and I think she can drop some more time. I am looking forward to seeing her 200 free swim. Kimmie Scott’s another who’s worked really hard and Ashley Shanel had a fabulous sectional meet. I think we’ll gel.”
At St. Charles North, the sectional team was in creation throughout the season. Seniors Lauren Reynolds and Allie Smith had shoulder injuries and freshman Meagan Popp had the opportunity to swim for the U.S. in an overseas meet.
“It’s the typical North Star way, but we’ve overcome adversity and I think this team is a true testament to what being an athlete is today,” St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. “We keep teaching the kids that they have to stay the course and that we’ll make it to the top.”
With Reynolds and Smith healthy for their final state meet swims and with Popp in the lineup for her first state meet, Rooney said his team is ready to perform. Reynolds qualified in the 100 backstroke, Smith was a part of the team’s qualifying relays and Popp will swim in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.
“Right now, we need to take care of ourselves and take care of each other and go into New Trier and remember that at the beginning of the year, everyone thought that we were going to be nothing. We want to go there and show people what we can do.”
Through the season, one of the constants was Lauren Zima, who qualified in the 100-yard butterfly and the 500 freestyle. A year ago, Zima was 10th in the butterfly.
“She has been there all year long and she was a key contributor all year,” Rooney said. “These girls have been through a lot. I hope, along the way, that we have taught them it’s about putting things together at the end.”
Rooney said he felt New Trier was the odds-on favorite to win the state title, but that the meet was wide-open from that point, especially for teams like his hoping to break into the Top 10.
“There’s no room for errors,” Rooney said. “We’ve got to get up and swim and the only team we can control is the North Stars — and that’s what we’ll focus on, taking care of our own business.”