Rosary takes third at state meet

It took two-thirds of the meet for Rosary's girls swim team to find the spark it was looking for and the Beads couldn't have waited much longer for someone to hit the ignition switch on their trophy chase.

As it turned out, it was the 200-yard freestyle relay quartet that got the job done with a performance that helped move Rosary to a third-place trophy position in the girls swimming state finals on Saturday at Evanston Township High School.

“We went in seeded first in the 200 free relay, and we had not had a good day,” Rosary coach Bill Schalz said. “We hadn't been able to pick up a single point all day long. And so we had to look at that relay, the way the day was going. Those girls stepped it up.”

The Beads shifted the order of swimmers a bit for the finals. Sarah Sykstus led off, followed by Rachel Burke, Amber Calderone and Katherine Hare. When the race ended, those four swimmers had Rosary's first state title of the meet, swimming 1:36.10 to beat Fenwick, which swam 1:36.10.

One event later, Molly Coonce won the 100 breastroke, which brought forth a series of smiles and hugs from teammates during the awards ceremony. Rosary finished the day with a fifth-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The result ends Rosary's four-year run as state champions New Trier won the title 198.5-126 over Loyola Academy. Still, the Beads' 122.5 total and any trophy seemed unlikely early in the afternoon after the meet-opening 200 medley relay was disqualified for a bad exchange.

“Disqualifying the relay, that was 20 points and we would have moved up a place,” Burke said. “That relay was important – they're always an important part of a state meet. But as a team, we can't be upset because we did swim well. Maybe we could have done a little better. But Loyola is a very good team and Loyola is outstanding.”

Race by race from that point, Rosary's unofficial 148-point total from Friday's preliminaries ebbed until the Beads were staring squarely at the possibility of going home empty-handed. That relay result stanched the bleeding. In fact, heading into the 400 freestyle relay, Rosary had a chance to finish second.

“We fell a little bit short, but I am so proud of our girls for all day long keeping grinding and grinding,” Schalz said. “We could have folded like a cheap suit and our girls didn't.”

Coonce placed in the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley as a freshman with Sherrard and then swam in Iowa as a sophomore, where she won the 200 individual medley title. Saturday's breaststroke final marked the junior's first Illinois title and helped erase her disappointing feelings from Friday's prelims.

“I went a 1:05.6 and my best time before that was a 1:04.99, so I was a little disappointed I wasn't under that 1:05 mark that I wanted to be under,” Coonce said. “I guess we saved it for today and it worked out.”

Coonce also finished fourth in the 100 butterfly but said the 200 freestyle relay's performance sent a charge through the entire team.

“I also got a lot of momentum off of my fly time (55.91),” Coonce said. “Then watching that 200 free relay was amazing and I knew I had to keep it going.”

St. Charles East achieved a team goal when it finished 10th with 50 points. The Saints were powered by four individual swims – two each by Emma Smith and Nicole Chapko and a 10th-place finish in the 200 medley relay.

Smith finished battled Dowers Grove North's Haley Sims all the way in the 200 individual medley before finishing second with a personal-best 2:02.98 time. Smith was also fifth in the 500 freestyle.

“I was really glad to have (Sims) to race,” Smith said. “It was really good competition. I was really happy with that. It was the highlight of my meet.”

Smith swam toward the front of the 500 freestyle pack for nearly half the race before Peoria Notre Dame's Rebecca Stoughton took control.

Chapko finished fourth in the 200 individual medley and fifth in the 100 breaststroke. The placings were the sophomores first individual state meet medals.

“It's been phenomenal,” Chapko said. “I don't think I can even describe it. Coming into the meet, I was prepared to swim well, but I didn't think I would swim Top 6 in both my events.”

St. Charles North's day in the swim finals included an eighth-place finish by Lauren Zima in the 100 butterfly and an eighth-place result for Lauren Reynolds in the 100 backstroke.

Zima's finish was the junior's first individual medal.

“I was excited to make finals,” Zima said. “Being eighth, I had a good time but it was a good experience. I was a little nervous, but it was fine.”

Also a junior, Reynolds adds this year's medal to her seventh-place finish in the 2009 state meet and marked an improvement on her 10th-place seeding after Friday's prelims.

“It's just exciting to do my best time,” Reynolds said. “It was my goal to move up and improve.”