There were postseason events in multiple sports happening all over the state on Saturday, Nov. 14, but there may have been no more exciting place to be than poolside at Fenwick.
Relay teams from the host Friars and Oak Park-River Forest squared off in a heated swimming and diving sectional battle. The Friars edged the Huskies by roughly six-tenths of a second in the 200 medley relay, and the Huskies returned the favor in the 200 freestyle relay, beating Fenwick by four-tenths of a second.
“It’s a great rivalry and both groups of kids really get up for it,” Fenwick coach Renee Miller said. “It makes for a great competitive environment and in terms of the relays. They definitely were on.”
Fenwick’s 200 medley time of 1 minute, 44.28 seconds was the fastest time recorded at any of Illinois’ 16 sectional meets, while Oak Park’s 1:44.90 was the third fastest sectional time in the state.
Fenwick not only broke its home pool record in the 400 freestyle relay, but the time of 3:26.68 posted by Catie Wallace, Erin Scudder, Brooke West and Theresa Mullen again was the fastest time among Illinois sectionals.
Catherine Clancy raced with Scudder, West, and Mullen in the 200 medley. Scudder believes both relay teams can do even better at the state final meet on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21, at New Trier.
“People might be shocked by those (sectional) times, but the four of us that swam that weren’t shocked,” Scudder said. “We know how hard we worked early season. And we’re only halfway tapered so we know we can drop some more time next weekend.”
The Huskies’ winning 200 freestyle relay time of 1:35.38 was the second fastest time recorded in Illinois on Saturday. Hanna Blankenmeier, Genevieve Curry, Samantha Nelson and Natalie Ungaretti competed on all three Oak Park relay teams.
“We had two school records in the medley and the 200,” Oak Park coach Clyde Lundgren said. “And Fenwick’s time in the 400 would have won the state meet last year going away.
“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. You want girls to qualify for next week, but there’s an emotional uptick when you’re going against your crosstown rival, and then you have to match that emotion five days later at the state meet.”
Curry isn’t worried that the emotional meet will cause any letdown heading into state.
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“It’s fun and it gets us ready for next week,” Curry said. “We know what they did, and now we know what we have to do at the state meet. It gets us even more motivated.”
Oak Park sophomore Alexandra Gill arguably provided Saturday’s most stunning performance, when she shaved three full seconds off her previous personal best in the 100 breaststroke, winning the event in 1:04.16.
With 11 teams present, Fenwick posted a 331-279 edge over second-place Oak Park. Northside, Riverside-Brookfield and Leyden followed in the team standings, but Northside was the only other team present that managed to advance any swimmers or divers to the state meet.
Leyden’s 400 freestyle relay team of Zitlali Montiel, Lavinia Santos, Sofia Zarutska and Julia Kornatowska placed third in 3:50.14 on Saturday, six seconds from state qualification.
Sixth-place Trinity saw Franki Gillis post a score of 353.15 in diving, which barely missed a state berth. In placing sixth in the 400 freestyle relay, Gabby Magnus, Olivia Blasi, Valerie Vega and Vanessa Herrera set a Trinity record of 4:18.72.
“Franki’s performance was outstanding, six new team records were set, and every Trinity swimmer had at least one season-best time,” Trinity coach Kathleen Maloney said. “It was a great finish to the season.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.