Girls swimming: DVC title brings Neuqua Valley one step closer to sectionals
The Neuqua Valley girls swimming team repeated as DuPage Valley Conference champions Saturday in its home pool.
The Wildcats won seven individual titles, but other schools made their presence known in that category also.
Neuqua finished with 324 points in the team standings followed by Naperville Central (249), Metea Valley (214), Naperville North (206) and Waubonsie Valley (183).
Neuqua coach Jason Niforatos wanted to change things up for this meet to better prepare the Wildcats for the Metea Valley sectional on Nov. 10.
"I wanted to take a much different approach. I wanted to give swimmers looks in their secondary and third events. I knew they could do it. I felt they could go fast, but in a different way," he said. "This is an especially big meet for the swimmers that will not be at sectionals. As far as sectionals, the focus is getting to state and nothing else."
Kristen Stege won the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events in 1 minute, 56.17 seconds and 5:08.36 respectively.
"I felt really good. I just try to stay as calm as I can," she said.
Teammate Tiffanie Ruan touched the wall first in the 100 backstroke in 58.05, setting a meet record.
"I thought I was doing OK (going into the meet)," she said. "I started off pretty good and I was able to hold everyone off."
The Wildcats won all three relays. The 200 medley relay of Athena Salafatinos, Divya Kale, Sophie Meng and Megan Ciezczak finished in 1:48.23; the 200 freestyle relay of Ruan, Kristen Stege, Rachel Stege and Maxine Parkinson prevailed in 1:36.73 and those same four took the top spot in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:31.35.
Neuqua's Sami Carlson won the diving, held Friday, with 456.05 points.
Naperville Central won two individual events. Paige Collins was champ in the 200 individual medley in 2:10.47 and Alexa Puccini broke 13-year-old DVC meet and conference records and a 17-year-old pool record in winning the 100 butterfly in 57.05.
"All season I've been trying to get under 57 (seconds) for the state cut. I was excited to see that time (today)," she said. "This is a hard meet for the varsity because we are not tapered. I'm just trying to do my best. I'm happy. I'm excited for sectionals. We've trained really hard."
This season the state-qualifying time for the 100 butterfly is 57.99 or under.
McKenna Stone of Metea Valley set a DVC meet record in winning the 50 freestyle last season in 23.65. It was another great day for her; she won the 50 freestyle and broke that DVC meet record by finishing in 23.10. She also won the 100 freestyle in 50.59.
"In 2017 (as a freshman), I wanted to experience this. It was a fun thing. I was motivated.
"Now, I'm trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials and I'm even more motivated," she said.
Her teammate, Kellie Willhite, won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.49.
Top individual finisher for Naperville North was Kelly Zhou with a third place in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.50.
Waubonsie's 200 freestyle relay of Lily Hunt, Kylie Mears, Lauren Lee and Rebecca Farber was second in 1:39.53. Farber earned third in the 100 backstroke, clocked in at 1:00.72.
The Metea Valley sectional will be a reunion of all the DVC teams along with West Aurora, Benet, IMSA, Oswego East co-op, Plainfield North Co-op, Sandwich and St. Francis.