Girls swimming: Neuqua Valley holds off St. Charles North
It might be 2½ months until the postseason, but it's never too early for a swimming meet to go down to the wire.
The St. Charles North girls swimming team was within striking distance of Neuqua Valley at the Wildcats' annual invitational Saturday with the meet down to the last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
St. Charles North won the event in 3 minutes, 35.89 seconds and set a meet record. But Neuqua's third-place 3:39.98 was good enough to keep the North Stars at bay. The Wildcats finished with 500 points. St. Charles North was second at 489. Waubonsie Valley was third with 448 and Metea Valley fourth at 280.
Neuqua coach Jason Niforatos said depth is a big strength for the Wildcats this season and it was tested because four key swimmers were not at the meet due to taking the ACT.
"We had just a couple of seniors graduate from last year. We have a lot of year-round swimmers. This is a huge team," he said.
With so much of the schedule remaining, the focus in the Neuqua pool is not on times but technique, and Niforatos said that was a key to prevailing.
"We knew it would be a battle. But we practiced the little things - turns, breakouts. We don't want to lose because of things like that," he said.
Ryan Dulaney was a double winner for the Wildcats. She touched the wall first in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.36 and won the 500 freestyle in 5:14.53.
"Last week we had our first dual meet and I didn't do as well as I had hoped," she said. "But today in both races and in my relay splits, I had time drops."
And regardless of when it happens on the schedule, the home team always wants to win its own invitational.
"Everyone is excited. Last year we were second. It's a huge deal to accomplish this," Dulaney said.
And the Neuqua swimmers are definitely focusing on the fundamentals that Niforatos wants the spotlight on at this point in the season.
"It's not necessarily about times. We just want to put together in meets all the techniques that we put together in practice," Dulaney said.
The other Neuqua victor was the 200 medley relay.
Waubonsie took three individual titles. Lily Hunt won the 50 freestyle in 25.12, Rebecca Farmer the 100 freestyle and Hannah Hunt the 100 breaststroke.
The top individual finisher for Metea was Sadie Gregory, who clocked in on the 50 freestyle in 25.14.
St. Charles North has just one senior on this year's roster, and coach Rob Rooney considers this season's version of the North Stars a work in progress.
"We have a core group of freshmen and sophomores that we're working with to help them learn to contribute more than they think they can," he said.
Rooney said one sophomore has made a large amount of progress from last season's freshman year. Mallory Jump won the 200 individual medley in 2:10.09 and the 100 butterfly in 58.53.
"I'm pretty happy with what happened considering I wasn't feeling well the past week. I'm just going out and trying to do my best," she said.
Other St. Charles North winners were Audrey Guyett, who set a meet record with a 57.51 in the 100 backstroke, and the 200 freestyle relay.