St. Charles East feels at home at St. Charles North

"1 Town; 2 Teams; 1 Pool."

Those words, found on the back of St. Charles North's specially-made Crosstown Showdown T-shirts on Thursday perfectly summed up the setting for Thursday's annual St. Charles East-St. Charles North girls swim meet. The meet, which should have taken place at East, instead went ahead at North due to ongoing construction work on the Norris Center pool.

The Saints showed they felt right at home, however, taking a 114-72 dual meet victory.

"They swam well," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We had practice this morning, so like we told them, we were fast, but we weren't crazy fast. That was good."

The Saints have some talented newcomers to the varsity this year. Among them is freshman Stephanie Garvin, who swam a leg of her team's 200-yard medley relay, won the 50 freestyle, took first in the 100 freestyle and swam a leg in the second-placed 200 freestyle relay.

"It was really exciting with both of the St. Charles high schools competing," Garvin said. "I think I did pretty well. I did better than I thought I would do because I was really tired today."

While a young team, the Saints came ready to perform.

"They were focused," Cabel said. "They were loose too. But we have good cheerleaders and had good cheers and they were having a really good time. They're working hard, but they're having a good time too."

St. Charles East junior Emma Smith showed she is one of the talents in the state, swimming legs of her team's medley relay and 200 free relay teams, which both finished first. Smith also won the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.

Saints sophomore Nicole Chapko won the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke to complete St. Charles East's list of varsity winners.

For St. Charles North, Thursday's meet was about overcoming challenges. As an example, junior Lauren Reynolds was asked to swim the anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay. After a brief break for the junior-varsity backstroke, Reynolds was back in the water, winning the varsity backstroke.

"He put me up to the challenge to see how I could do physically and mentally," Reynolds said. "I thought it went very well. There's not much I would change about it."

"He" is St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney, who used the meet to find things out about his team. As he said, "there isn't a lot of time. There's enough time."

For a team that lost a considerable amount from last year's team, the building process will continue through the season for the North Stars.

"St. Charles East is a top three team," Rooney said. "For us, we'll be good at the end. We have to figure how to put a team back together. We lost a lot of leadership, which wasn't just from one star but from a whole supporting cast. We have a top 10 team. We just ran across a really good team today."