Girls swimming: Stevenson qualifies three relays for finals
The girls swimming state finals can be a chaotic event, especially in the prelims where a multitude of swimmers and divers are competing to make it to the next day's championship clashes.
Maybe even more so at FMC Natatorium in Westmont, the beautiful new facility that has a large "wraparound" seating section, where fans can sit on three sides of the pool to cheer on their favorites.
It can be intimidating, but Jacki Stadler said that she seems to thrive in that type of venue.
Friday at the state preliminaries, Stadler, a senior at Glenbrook South, finished 2nd in the diving competition to advance to today's finals.
"There a so many more spectators here," said Stadler, "an insane amount of people, but that motivates me. I look at it as more people to impress, and knock on wood, with a bigger crowd, I seem to do better. I'm optimistic about tomorrow."
"She did great," said Titans diving coach Laura Duffy. "All good vibes today."
"Jacki is really strong, and she doesn't shy away from learning new, hard dives."
Coach Duffy talked about the pressure that comes from being one of the favorites to come away with a state title.
Stadler, who will attend and swim for Providence in the fall, was fourth overall last season and came in as the top seed this year.
"She doesn't like to talk about it, or think about it," said Duffy of the seeding. "Once you get here, everybody starts out the same, zero-zero."
"A lot of ups and downs today, but I'll take it," added Stadler. "Last year I came in (to Saturdays finals) in eleventh and I wound up fourth, so I'm looking to do something similar this year."
Barrington senior Jenna Kerr excelled Friday in Westmont. She'll be swimming for two crowns today as she was 2nd in the 200 free (1:47.32), and 1st in the 500 free (4:50.56).
Ella Houston of Buffalo Grove was fifth in the 500 at 4:59.84 to advance.
It was a strong meet for Stevenson. Three Patriots relay teams qualified for the championship finals, in the 200 medley, the 200 free and the 400 free. Junior Jennifer Chen grabbed third in the 100 backstroke (55.47), while classmate Stephanie Kirova was 6th in the 50 free.
Zuzanna Krasnicki of Schaumburg will be back at FMC Saturday after finishing 4th in the 100 free at 51:15, while Isabella Ramos of Vernon Hills took 6th in the 200 IM.
Vera Conic of Rolling Meadows, a freshman, was fastest of all in the 100 back, hitting the mark at 54.59, dropping a whopping 2.35 from her seeding time.
"That was a quite a race," said Meadows coach Monika Chiappetta of Conic's achievement.
"She was very nervous," added the coach. "She's accomplished in the club world but here (at the state meet) it's a different kind of feel. When she walked up for the backstroke I told her that she had to be a beast in this race, and from the first kick out I knew she meant business."
"I knew that if she got out strong, she'd fight to the finish. Vera was so relieved (at the end of the race) and so shocked about how much time she dropped. I wish someone could have gotten a picture of her face at that moment."
It was also a historic day for two Mustangs divers.
Brooklyn Hextall are Caitlin Widawski missed out on advancement to Saturday, finishing just out of the top 12, but according to Meadows dives coach Jeff Thieman it's the first time in quite a while that a school had two athletes finish this high (14 and 16) in the diving competition.
The pair are seniors, and they also happen to be cousins.
"They're great teammates, and they feed off each other," said Thieman. "They had a nice season. They really came back and excelled on their last three dives today, unfortunately everybody else was just diving their brains out."
"They're also both avid gymnasts, and so I had to adapt some of my mechanics this year to take that in to account."
Fremd's Katie Kuehn qualified in the 50 free.