Scouting Mid-Suburban League girls swimming
Scouting Mid-Suburban League girls swimming
When: 11 a.m. Saturday at Barrington
Outlook: Look for Barrington to win a stunning 20th straight conference championship — but perhaps not by the usual margin. Last year the Fillies nearly doubled up runners-up Fremd and Palatine, who tied for second place ahead of Hersey. A stronger Fremd team this year figures to eat into some of Barrington’s points, and the Vikings got a nice start Friday in diving with Stephanie and Elizabeth Uhrich. But the Fillies still have an impressive array of talent under coach Jim Bart, and especially in the freestyles where standout senior Erika Elliott, her junior sister Danielle, senior Justine Kaszynski and sophomore Mekenna Scheitlin give Barrington relays that are tough for other teams to contend with. Other key contributors for the Fillies include Olivia Hoffman, Kayla Widdowson, Emma Barnett and Kelsey Holmes.
Fremd answers with junior standout Breanna Anderson and frosh Erica King and excellent depth across the lineup from Kayleen Samuels, Amy McEllen, Sam Matuszewski and Emily McCarthy. It’s the last swims of the season for hard-working seniors Sam Delprado and Laura Plager, so the Vikes will be fired-up for their races. “We want to make sure we race well,” said Fremd coach Andrew Kittrell. “We will have great matchups in all three relays, as well as several individual events including the backstroke, the 500, the 50 and 100 frees. Time is less important to me (Saturday) —I’m more concerned with how the kids challenge themselves against some good competition.”
Hersey and Buffalo Grove figure to be the East’s top representatives. Huskies junior Amanda Petro is the top seed in the 200 free and will rack up the points and bolster Hersey’s loaded-up freestyle relays; Erin Horne has shown dramatic improvement in recent weeks and the Huskies have a deep team whose challenge will be to score points consistently against the rest of the league’s top competitors.
The championship format suits Buffalo Grove and Palatine, who both feature several likely top-three MSL finishers but not quite enough depth to be top-notch dual teams. The Bison are looking for big swims from Veronika Jedryka, Sara Fasching, Callie Fasching and Margaret Lotzer, and those four have delivered excellent freestyle relays all season. The Pirates have state meet veteran Nicole Huffman, complemented by Laura Mayer, Amy Zachn and Nicole Theis.
Lane lines: Conant’s Barbara Rose and Allison Cicero form a tough distance freestyle tandem ... Rolling Meadows senior Vicky Vockeroth is the defending champ in the 100 fly ... Junior Jessica Cavaiani leads the way for Prospect and is a threat to win the 100 breaststroke ... Elk Grove’s Simona Kurta finished in the top six in the 100 fly last season ... Hoffman Estates has had solid efforts from sprinter Sharon Sturnfield ... Schaumburg sophomore Sydney Skibinsky is among the league’s top breaststrokers ... Wheeling’s Leah Malsom is in the final heat of the 200 IM and 100 free.
— Aaron Gabriel