One goal for area teams at sectional

It’s time for the postseason spotlight to shine on the state’s boys swimming and diving teams. The most important moments of the season annually come right at the end, and that process starts with Saturday’s state sectional meets.

“In other sports, you have to be up for games every week and we just never, ever do that,” St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. “We have 14 weeks and we’re building for the end.”

Like track and field, high school swimming operates its state meet with a one-shot opportunity for qualification. Each of the 11 swimming events has a qualifying standard and the best athletes in Illinois head to their respective sectional sites on Saturday to attempt to take their place in next weekend’s state meet in Evanston.

St. Charles North hosts a sectional and St. Charles East heads across town to compete. Marmion and West Aurora travel to Metea Valley.

St. Charles North treks to its own pool on Saturday on the heels of a very successful season. The North Stars won their second consecutive Upstate Eight Conference title two weeks ago and will be favorites to win the sectional title as well. Beyond lifting the plaque, North Stars coach Rob Rooney has other things for his team to focus on.

“It’s about qualifying,” Rooney said. “There are teams that have been beaten at the sectional meet that have gone on to win a state championship. I want us to qualify and I want us to swim fast with the taper. The kids are focusing on the state met and you want them to focus and get it done day by day.”

Through the season, teams “overtrain,” purposely making their bodies tired. They then “taper” their training at the end of the season and the result as the body regains energy comes in large time drops. The best swimmers always swim their fastest times in the sectional and state meets.

Two weeks ago, varsity teams got a chance to watch their junior-varsity teammates finish their seasons at the conference meet. Those JV swimmers went through a tapering process, and varsity athletes always get a boost when they see their colleagues swim faster than ever just as they enter their own tapering process.

“Our shave and taper kids had a phenomenal conference meet,” Rooney said. “They swam lights out and I’m proud of what those guys did. That meet is the start of championship season and the enthusiasm goes from group to group.”

The North Stars have one four-year varsity swimmer in Chris Dieter, and Rooney said he is ready to perform in his final state series.

“He and the other varsity kids have been through this before,” Rooney said. “They know what’s expected of them and they believe in the program. I’m always concerned that they believe in the work that they’ve done and that they believe in the sequence of training that they’ve done. Every group has done its job right this year.”

Dieter is a co-captain on the team with fellow senior Joey Chokran. Rooney said that while this year’s North Stars squad isn’t the largest he’s had, it is the closest.

“They are they heartbeat of the team and they are really in charge — I’m not,” Rooney said. “They are the guys who control the direction and they’ve done a great job with it and have done things right.”

St. Charles East’s team has been building through the season for this point, swimming an incredible number of training yards. Now the training has eased and Saints coach Joe Cabel knows his team is ready to perform. But he also knows that the key in the sectional meet is to swim fast and qualify — but still be ready to swim even faster at the state meet.

“You’ve got to put a little on the board this week,” Cabel said. “We’ve been trying to hold them back a bit and keep something for state. We’ve worked really hard for this.”

Controlling so much new-found energy can sometimes be a challenge. Cabel said some coaches like to say they don’t feel their team is ready unless there’s been a fight. The Saints haven’t had any fights, but Cabel said they are more than ready.

“There’s a lot of positive energy and there’s simply some energy,” Cabel said. “They’ve been broken down so long that they’re happy to get a break. It’s easy now to swim better.”

The Saints swam the Upstate Eight Conference meet in drag suits, which are intended to help slow the swimmer a bit. On Saturday, they will wear their more aerodynamic competition suits, which is one more mental as well as physical way in which to help the team move better through the water.

“All season, they’ve been wearing drag suits and swimming 8,000 yards before they swim in a meet,” Cabel said. “I think we were the only one at the conference meet in drag suits. They need a break and we’ll give them that opportunity on Saturday.”

Seasoned swimmers have been through tapering a number of times. Cabel said he and his staff have broken the team into three groups in working through the process, trying to get each individual at the right point to qualify and then to perform even better at the state meet.

“Everyone has a formula and it might be the secret formula,” Cabel said. “We’ll be halfway there on Saturday. We won’t lay it all out there for sectional. During the season, we take everything away from them and make them work hard. At the end of the season, we give it all back and more.”

Senior Shaun Seuschek is one of the Saints expected to shine in the postseason this year. His work on-deck is just as important as one of the team’s leaders.

“He’s a funny guy,” Cabel said. “He’s a great guy to have on your team for a lot of reasons, He works hard and he’s been a great captain for us. And he’s a great swimmer for us too.”

While onlookers speak of “disappointments” at sectional meets when swimmers don’t make their state cuts, Cabel said he has a different view.

“Everybody had an improvement or a moment that they gather from the meet,” Cabel said. “I don’t always feel much about disappointments. They always go fast. Whether they make that state cut or not, that might be a disappointment. But for me, it’s always been a great day. When I was a swimmer, and when I got to taper, it was always a great time. The season can be a super challenge. But there’s nothing like a taper.”

Marmion is another swim team that has built momentum through the regular season and is ready to put its best efforts into the water on Saturday.

“We went into the season with no cuts,” Marmion coach Bill Schalz said. “It was kind of interesting going through the season not knowing what to expect. We’ve gotten better every week.”

The Cadets started the season with a pair of heavy dual meet losses to Fenwick and Sandburg and the team focused on improving even before those meets, Schalz said. And there has been improvement every week.

One of the keys is that Marmion has a number of very fast swimmers who aren’t blazing fast. So there are a lot of options for how to put together the lineup in order to maximize performance not only in terms of qualifying athletes for the state meet but with regard to scoring points at the state meet as well.

“We have six guys who are under 50 seconds in the 100 free but none of them have been 46,” Schalz said. “The challenge for me is who to put on these relays. We really don’t know yet and I definitely think this is a year where you could see us use one group of kids in the sectional, another group in prelims and a third group in finals.”

The challenge is heightened because, when put together successfully, the Cadets are a fast team, something they have shown time and again as the season has progressed.

“All three of our relays are under or right at the state cut,” Schalz said. “We haven’t put our four best guys on the 400 free relay, and we’re not under the cut yet. But when we do put them there, we’re under the cut.”

Those challenges extend beyond relays. Schalz said athletes such as Josh Kanute, Jon Thielen and Jack Fergus all have multiple events in which they might be competitive. The state allows a swimmer to compete in a maximum of two individual events and two relays or one event and all three relays. So mixing and matching is an art form for Schalz this February,

“This has been the hardest sectional lineup I’ve ever done,” Schalz said. “We have so many guys who are close to each other. It’s a matter of maximizing what we can do at state.”

Schalz said his team has worked to improve this year by shifting its weight training regimen. Gone are the days of moving massive weights, trying to hit maximum lift targets.

“When we get into the weight room, they want to bench press and do squats,” Schalz said. “Our training is all about body movement. It’s all about functional training and it’s been phenomenal. We’re a much bigger and stronger team.”

On the far side of Marmion’s pool deck are a number of straps hanging down. These straps and rings are the team’s torture chamber.

“When you’re doing a push-up and your hands are on a gymnast’s rings and your hands are moving, it makes everything so much harder,” Schalz said. “You’re moving your own body weight. It’s all a matter of maximizing the little time we have in the weight room and we’re not in the water. At the end of the day, you have to get in the water and swim fast.”

The first of those days where there is an extreme reward for swimming fast is Saturday.

“I always have the same goal for the sectional,” Schalz said. “There’s only one reason for going to this meet and that’s to try to qualify everybody for state. Will we? I don’t know. I’ve never qualified every single swimmer for every event. We’ll see. But that’s the goal, to get everybody down there.”