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Girls swimming: Scouting Fox Valley area at state meet

The girls state swim meet begins Friday in Evanston, with many area qualifiers, who have all spent the last year preparing for this afternoon's prelims with the hope of qualifying for Saturday's finals.

Following busy club calendars, high school teams have had two practices most days since mid-August, though the workload has now tapered and all are rested and ready for the 3:30 p.m. start to swimming prelims. The area's qualifying divers start their competition at 9 a.m.

There are realistic expectations up and down the lists of area qualifiers. Rosary seeks a fourth straight title. St. Charles North has earned trophies in two of the last three years. St. Charles East looks to continue its scoring tradition at state while Bartlett and West Aurora are each celebrating unprecedented qualifying success.

All eyes will of course be on Rosary, which seeks to complete its second "quadpeat" of four straight titles this century. The Beads qualified nearly all entries from last weekend's lightning quick Neuqua Valley sectional.

"We've got everybody qualified to have a successful state meet. All the pieces are in place," Rosary coach Bill Schalz said.

Rosary's team is deep but is powered by senior qualifiers who have been through the state meet several times. Among these are Linda Licari, Kathryn Mueller, Anne Tavierne, Sydney Van Overmeiren and Athena Ye.

"Our senior class has so much experience," Schalz said. "You see how much our sophomores have changed in the last year since they were freshmen, and it's these seniors who have helped them. We have sophomores who could finish in the top six, Jessica Geriane and Elyssa Brault, and they get it now and want to be a part of this."

Senior Samantha Rankin qualified as an individual for the first time in the 200 IM.

"I'm excited for her to swim," Schalz said. "She 'suited up' for sectional but wasn't fully-rested. Every year, we have girls who don't make our sectional team who would have made virtually every other state team in the state, and (Rankin) has been one of those."

Rosary's other individual qualifier is Izzy Pytel and the Beads have also qualified a diver - Paige Klimavicius. The Beads, like all the top teams, qualified all three of their relays. Together, the team has one thought in mind - winning the state title.

"We are not going to the meet to try to get second," Schalz said. "With these girls and this culture we have built, it would be a disappointment. That is not to say that there aren't teams that could beat us, because there are. We have to swim well to win and we could swim well and still lose the meet, but we are going there to try to win it."

When the meet ends, Schalz will retire from girls swim coaching, though he is set to coach Marmion's team this winter before leaving high school coaching completely.

"I'm focused on the meet, not really thinking about it much. But I got an email from a Benet swimmer from 15 years ago the other day, thanking me for all I've done for swimming, and you can't help but think about it. I've had coaches come up to me all season to talk. Something happened in practice this week, a fleeting moment, and it choked me up a little bit. They might have been just screwing around, but I thought 'this is never going to happen again.' I get these brief moments where I'm like the high school seniors - 'this is my last sectional, my last state meet.' I'm sure I will get the same moments in the boys season too, and Marmion's my alma mater, so that's special to me too."

From a trophy standpoint, St. Charles North has emerged fully in recent years, claiming third in 2015 and 2017. North Stars coach Rob Rooney is quick to point out that with four straight Top 10 finishes, his team has been consistently one of the top teams in Illinois, whether or not they earned trophies.

This year figures to be another year in which the North Stars challenge for a trophy. In addition to Rosary and St. Charles North, New Trier, Neuqua Valley, Lyons and Oswego are other teams in the mix for the top spots this year.

"We haven't completed our journey yet," Rooney said. "We've got a very resilient, mission-driven group of girls. We've been through a lot and now they're having fun. They're tight like a family and I'm proud of them for finding that togetherness."

The North Stars won the St. Charles East sectional and have certainly got a state group that can be successful this weekend. In addition to their three relays, St. Charles North has a group of qualifiers from across the age spectrum ready to compete. There are seniors in Mallory Jump, Kayleigh Lewis and Rachel Ponte, juniors including Megan Armstrong, diver Ava Atkins, Izabella DelRosario, Sydney Maxwell, Hailey Olsen, Mary Kate Phillips and Mary Ellen Wolff, sophomore Payton Baxter and freshmen Paige Armstrong, Angelina Messina and Caitlin Suda.

"We've historically been a Top 5-10 team," Rooney said. "I've learned a lot and these last three years, I've redrawn what's going on in the program from chemistry to attitude to training and the girls have responded very well. I am extremely fortunate to coach this group of girls at this moment."

While Rosary's winning margin has been large the last three seasons, the battle for the other two team trophies has been intense. In individual races, the difference in time from the top swimmers is often very close, though only the top six will advance to swim for the state title on Saturday the next six-fastest will swim in the consolation final. Some very fast athletes always narrowly miss scoring at the state meet.

"There is parity across the state that is really astonishing," Rooney said. "The kids are getting bigger and faster and stronger and the thing is we don't know how fast they are going to get. I think there's a difference between expecting to do well and those kids who just 'want it.' You have to have that mental mindframe, and I think that's what separates the teams that are talking about doing it and those who want to do it."

St. Charles East qualified its three relays, senior diver Lauren Carne and a group of swimmers who will all return next year - junior Mary Jania, sophomores Madison Supple and Lauren Swartz and freshman Sophie Mruk.

"Going into sectionals, we were focused on the things we needed to do, to make sure that we had checked all the boxes and that we were ready to go. Now we're excited to go to state. It's (assistant coach) Kent Pearson's last meet on deck as a coach and I think that's a big motivator," St. Charles East coach Julie Oelslager said.

Jania is one of the best breaststroke swimmers in Illinois and competes in what could be one of the most wide-open races in this year's finals.

"When you look at the 100 breaststroke, it really is a free-for-all," Oelslager said. "(Jania) was doing doubles (practices) until last week. I think she is really ready to go and surprise herself as well as maybe other people this weekend."

Oelslager said her team is ready to perform beyond just this weekend.

"There's a lot of motivation even after the season," she said. "They're excited to compete in USA swimming and then to get back with the St. Charles club with the (St. Charles) North girls and to start training hard for next season so they can be even faster next season."

For Bartlett-Streamwood, using words such as "best-ever" is a little tough considering the SabreHawks were seventh in 2016. However, the team qualified the most athletes in school history, has eight preliminary swims and is building the kind of depth found in the strongest teams.

In junior Sydney Kelly, the SabreHawks have one of the fastest distance freestylers in the state and could join 2017 graduate Kayla Filipek as the school's only individual placewinner this weekend.

"Sydney's freshman year was Kayla's senior year and she got to be a part of that experience," Bartlett-Streamwood coach Jeremy Meserole said. "To see her transition from being a newbie to one of the top swimmers in the state has been fun to watch."

The SabreHawks also qualified senior Paige Edmier, who has scored in the state meet in relays and junior Kellsie Krisch in addition to both freestyle relays.

"(Edmier) has been there every year and she finally gets to go in two individual events, which is great because she's had her best year this year. Kellsie Krisch is one of the best breaststrokers in the state and it's nice to see the young kids from a couple of years ago grab the torch," Meserole said.

With qualified relays, Meserole gets to bring more swimmers to the state meet, where they will gain experience and fuel the program's future.

"The kids are excited to come into the program now because of the recent success we've had," Meserole said. "The upperclassmen have been able to tell our newbies what it was like when they were newbies and it's been really nice watching it transition the last three to four years."

West Aurora is another program on the rise, and qualification of the school's 200-yard medley relay kick-started a tremendous Neuqua Valley sectional for the Blackhawks. The IHSA has records dating to 1996, and the Blackhawks have not qualified a relay in that time.

"The medley relay was the most insane thing I've ever witnessed," West Aurora coach Chris Ranallo said. "I was ecstatic and couldn't stop jumping up and down. It set the tone for the rest of the meet."

Senior Gina Jenkins, a four-time qualifier, has qualified in both distance freestyle events while junior Sophie Bastian and freshman Annabel Olivo have also qualified.

"I think some of the girls are still in shock about what they've done," Ranallo said. "If you look at it, we set a lot of school records last year. If you look at the times and where they were last year and look at the time they put in during the offseason and how they came back at it this year, you can see that we had a shot."

In his seventh year at West Aurora, Ranallo said he doesn't want his team to just go and enjoy a bus ride to Evanston this weekend.

"You go into such a big stage, but I want them to go out and have a good time - and perform well," Ranallo said. "I think they're all excited and I think that will fuel them this weekend. While we've only had (Jenkins) go in recent years, a lot of them have gone and watched and experienced what the atmosphere is like."

Jacobs sophomore Jennifer Tokarz qualified for the state meet in the 200 freestyle.

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