New Trier wins 16th girls state swim title
New Trier's first event in the pool Saturday showed Trevians coach Mac Guy his girls were right where they should be.
Cutting nearly a second off their preliminary time in the 200-yard medley relay at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Tierney Lenahan, Charlize Escasa, Zara Bolton and Megan Marquardt won the event in 1 minute, 41.96 seconds, topping Hinsdale Central.
"After that it felt like we kept that momentum on our side the whole way," Guy said.
New Trier rallied past Hinsdale Central to win its 16th Illinois High School Association girls swimming and diving state final Nov. 11-12. The Trevians' 149.50 points topped Hinsdale Central (131), St. Charles North (128), Stevenson (123.50) and St. Ignatius (104) in a meet much tighter than in 2021 when New Trier enjoyed an 82-point margin of victory over Barrington and Hinsdale Central.
The Trevians have earned trophies in each of the last four IHSA state meets.
"It was pretty awesome. I think coming in, particularly down 14 points to Hinsdale Central after preliminaries on Friday, with a different team there's a really good possibility the meet goes a different way," Guy said.
"But the girls stayed upbeat, positive, relaxed and focused on the stuff they could be a little bit sharper on."
The 200 medley relay was New Trier's sole event victory, but the deep Trevians racked up six other top-three swims in addition to sophomore Olivia Safarikova's sixth-place, second-team all-state finish in the 200 freestyle.
"I told them I refuse to accept that how we performed on Friday is the best we can do," Guy said.
Lenahan tied for first in the 100 backstroke, finished second in the 100 freestyle, and anchored a second-place 400 freestyle relay with Safarikova, Elyse Newlands and the University of Illinois-bound Megan Meade.
Yale recruit Escasa and Northwestern commit Maggie Papanicholas - respectively fourth and sixth in Friday's preliminaries - placed second and third in the 100 breaststroke, while New Trier's 200 freestyle relay of Escasa, Safarikova, Marin Shimkus and Marquardt took third.
Guy noted that Escasa was the first swimmer in New Trier history to be a state 200 medley relay champion in two different positions - freestyle in 2021 and breaststroke this year.
Obviously, Lenahan fit in nicely since moving in from Seattle.
"She's a sophomore, and for someone to come in to a totally different environment and finish no further than second in any one of her events is pretty amazing," Guy said.
Loyola sophomore Maria Cheng followed Lenahan in third in the 100 backstroke.
Deerfield junior Annika Parkhe won both the 200 freestyle and reestablished her own pool and IHSA record with a victorious 100 butterfly, at 52.13 seconds. Parkhe was .07 seconds away from her own IHSA 200 freestyle record of 1:45.53 and won by a full 2 seconds.