Girls swimming and diving: Stevenson a runaway winner at NSC meet
Early on at Saturday's North Suburban Conference girls swimming and diving championships at Stevenson, Ayrton "Art" Kasemets' heat sheets resembled a thin, crumpled, rolled-up newspaper.
Just three races in, specifically.
Stevenson's head coach, sporting a floppy, black-and-silver wizard's hat, had gripped the packet of sheets tightly and used it to fan his perspiration-soaked face - after pogo-sticking his frame a half-dozen times and pumping his raised arms near the end of a stirring 1-2-3 Patriots finish.
"My assistant (Jennifer King) and I run across the deck at all meets," Kasemets said. "We sometimes crawl, too, side-by-side, to root for our swimmers, to urge them to swim faster. Anything, really, to show our support.
"It's only fair," he added," since we ask our girls to give it their all in every race."
His Patriots left him exhausted, in a good way, Saturday in Lincolnshire. Stevenson won 7 of the 12 events - including 3 consecutive races in which they collected gold, silver and bronze - and skipped to the program's sixth consecutive NSC title with a 324-point total.
"Hey, magical things happened for us today," a grinning Kasemets said, pointing to his wizard's lid on Halloween Eve.
Runner-up Libertyville tallied 250 points, behind a trio of event championships, and Lake Forest took third (230). Warren placed fourth (180), followed by Mundelein (154), Zion-Benton (43) and Waukegan (26).
How deep is Stevenson's club?
This deep: senior Elizabeth White clocked a runner-up - and state-qualifying - time of 58.19 to champ Grace Bevers (57.69) of Warren in the 100-yard backstroke but won't swim in any event at next weekend's Lake Forest sectional.
Two of her teammates swim the event faster than she does.
Harsh.
"My last meet," said White, not at all bitter about her tough lot on a team of swim darts. "I still consider myself lucky, being on a great team like this one. And this sport taught me more about the importance of discipline than any of my other activities did."
Patriots sophomore Hana Wienckowski won 2 events, including the 100 butterfly (57.52), with teammates Camila Maya (59.91) and Katie Makarska (1:00.51) finishing 2-3. Stevenson also went 1-2-3 in the next 2 races, the 100 freestyle and the 500 free. Senior Claudia Rzeznik won the former in 53.06, ahead of junior Abigail Collins (54.33) and Isabelle Gattone (also 54.33); sophomore Delaney Umbleby touched first in the 500 free (5:22.31), ahead of sophomores Sophia Berger (5:25.02) and Stephanie Kirova (5:30.02).
Wienckowski also topped the 50-free field (24.06).
Patriots senior Nora Kowalski got things rolling for the champs the night before, totaling 452.9 points to win the diving segment after plummeting elegantly and cleanly. She hit her front-double pike and inward double.
Collins (1:54.53) and Pats junior Amy Andres (1:59.32) went 1-2 in the 200 free, and the quartet of Makarska, Rzeznik, Wienckowski and Collins capped the meet with a first-place 3:34.59 in the 400 free relay.
"Our JV swimmers and our tapered varsity swimmers provided fuel for our non-tapered swimmers at this meet," Kasemets said. "Our (state series) swimmers watched their conference-meet teammates today and thought, 'Oh, that's me next weekend and the weekend after that.' "
Mundelein received its lone championship effort from junior Riley Routledge - in an off-event. Normally a 100 breaststroker and 100 freestyler, Routledge pared more than 4 seconds off her seed time to win the 200 IM in 2:09.05.
"We made Riley wear two suits today to see what she could do in the 200 IM," Mustangs coach Rahul Sethna said. "She's a racer; you have to love that. She's got a good line, with long strokes, flowing strokes."
Libertyville had to battle without junior Sarah Wuh's strokes in the second half of Saturday's meet. Illness forced her exit, after she'd helped the Wildcats' 200 medley relay (with sophomores Sofija Tijunelis, Georgia Kahler and Logan Howard) win in a zippy 1:47.64.
Libertyville coach Michael Cunningham then tapped junior Chhaya Doshi to take Wuh's place in the 200 free relay. Good call, Coach. Doshi (leg No. 3), Kahler, Tijunelis and anchor Howard sped to first-place honors with a time of 1:37.62.
The NSC meet record in the event: 1:37.13, set by a Lake Forest crew in 2015.
"I was nervous," Doshi admitted. "I'd never had to sub like that in a meet like this. But my teammates settled me down."
Kahler cruised to the title in the 100 breaststroke in a sub-state-qualifying 1:06.23.
Warren's Bevers, one of only 12 Blue Devils varsity members, added a runner-up showing in the 200 IM (2:10.16). The elite swimmer was far from fully tapered Saturday.
"I couldn't be happier with the way our team is swimming," Warren coach Chris Bertana said during the 500 free. "This meet is our JVers' 'state meet.' Next weekend (at the Lake Forest sectional) we'll have a couple of good opportunities to qualify for state."
Mundelein's Routledge churned to third-place points in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.41); Lake Zurich's Melanie Angelov took fourth in the 100 fly (1:01.73); Lake Forest diver Taylor Cekay finished second (443.25), ahead of Stevenson's Shreeya Sinha (3rd, 396.3); Mundelein's Karina Schwalbach placed fourth in the 500 free (5:30.39, more than 13 seconds faster than her seed time); and Stevenson's Milena Busma contributed fourth-place swims in the 200 IM (2:13.62) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.44).
Quick laps:
Stevenson also won the JV NSC girls swimming and diving championships Saturday in the home water, amassing 344 points to runner-up Libertyville's 257. ... Every NSC team, except for Lake Zurich, will vie for state berths at next weekend's Lake Forest sectional; LZ competes at the Barrington sectional.