Girls swimming and diving: Emary, Barrington fierce to the finish
The pool deck at New Trier was occupied by the state's top aquatic athletes on Saturday.
Barrington senior Maggie Emary was one of them, but for her final high school race, the 500-yard freestyle, she found herself using a motivational ploy that had nothing whatever to do with high school girls swimming.
"Last night, my little brother Danny went 4:55 in the 500 in his meet," Emary explained.
That 4:55 was a few seconds faster than the 4:58.67 that Maggie Emary had produced Friday in qualifying for the championship finals of the 500.
So with sibling pride on the line, she evened up the score.
Emary completed her high school swimming career with a 4:55.57. That gave her a fourth-place finish in her fastest time of the year. It's also her highest placement in an individual event over a distinguished four-year sequence of state meets.
All of which helped Barrington toward its total of 37 points and a satisfying 10th-place team finish.
The Fillies got started with the medley relay of Emary, Catherine Kitzman, Emma Pritchett and Ally Penrod finishing 10th in 1:46.28.
Next was Bridget O'Leary, who placed 11th in the 200 free (1:52.85). That swim was disappointing for the junior, who quickly turned her focus to her next race - the 500 free.
O'Leary produced a take-charge swim, grabbing an early lead with Palatine sophomore Jane Smith in an adjacent lane trying to keep the pace. Those two ended up pulling away from the field and taking the top two spots in the consolation heat, finishing seventh and eighth.
"I think it actually helped that I was disappointed with the 200," O'Leary said. "I just said to myself, 'I'm going to go after this hard and just race - and hopefully I don't die.' "
That didn't happen, but it still took a concerted effort for O'Leary (4:58.78) to hold off the hard-charging Smith (4:59.71).
Counting the laps for Smith was Fremd sophomore Sophie Kuehn - a friendly rival during the high school season, but simply the best of friends the other nine months of the year.
"The thing about Jane is, she just doesn't give herself breaks on anything," Kuehn said. "She's better than anybody I know at staying focused."
Barrington's point-scoring effort got a big boost from Penrod, who raced in both the 100 free and the 100 breaststroke.
She moved up to 11th place in the 100 free (51.73), then grabbed sixth place in the breast (1:04.44).
"It's a little disappointing, but only because the times today were a little slower than (Friday)," said Penrod. "But on the whole, I can't be upset at all. It was a good weekend."
The future is nothing but bright for a Fillies team that figures to have plenty of proven state-level talent back next year - yet the team will miss key seniors such as Emary, Emma Graves and Mia Chen.
Graves said Emary's competitiveness brought an intensity to the team that will be hard to replace.
"The thing about Maggie is that she's always challenging herself," Graves said. "Every week, and every hour in the day, it's about doing the work."
The next benificiary of that labor will be Florida State. A National Letter of Intent signing ceremony has been scheduled for Monday, and eventually Emary will return to the state where she lived in her younger years and where her father - Barrington Swim Club head coach Rob Emary - cut his coaching teeth.
Barrington high school coach Alex Mikolajewski summed up Maggie Emary's workout habits by providing this example:
"It's the end of the set, I'm looking in the water at a bunch of huffing and puffing and red faces - and there's Maggie, asking if she can swim a 200 IM fast," he said. "I'm like sure, go ahead - knock yourself out. She's always willing to do a little extra."
Including, it appears, conducting virtual races against siblings. Danny Emary, about to start his sophomore season at Barrington, will surely end up faster than his big sister in the 500.
"That's OK," Maggie said with a smile. "It's only for while we're both still in high school."
Coach Bill Schalz's Rosary team took top honors for a third straight year, this time finishing with 169 points to better Oswego East (138.5) and third-place St. Charles North (108).
Oswego East's Grace Cooper, Mari Kraus, Emily Giles and Georgia White lowered the 400 free relay state record they'd set in the prelims by winning in 3:22.48.
White and Normal West's Melissa Pish had a rare tie for first place in the 200 free, with both touching in 1:47.13.
Other event winners were Normal's Grace Ariola in the 50 free (22.52) and 100 back (53.29), Dunlap's Emma Theobald in the 100 fly (54.61), Cooper in the 100 free (49.91), Pish in the 500 free (4:49.25) and Urbana's Ema Rajic in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.35) and 200 IM (2:00.74).
Next year's state meet will feature plenty of first-time state champs, as all but one of this year's event winners - Oswego East's Cooper - are seniors.