Warren’s Courtney Barker was primed for a great finish to her high school career.
“I had high expectations with this, my senior year, and I just wanted to go out with my team and do really well,” she said.
Then tragedy struck. Josh Church, 17, a junior swimmer at Warren, died of undetermined natural causes on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at a swim club activity held at Vernon Hills High School.
Barker paid tribute to Church by finishing fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (57.26) and ninth in the 50 freestyle (23.78) at Saturday’s girls swimming state finals in Evanston.
Warren ended up in 24th place with 14 points.
“This has been a very hard week with the loss of Josh Church,” Barker said. “The past few days have been very difficult with practice and sleep. I definitely wanted to come and swim for him and get my best times.”
A moment of silence was observed Friday for the Church family. Alyssa Church, a sophomore and Josh’s younger sister, swam a leg on the Blue Devils’ 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams with Barker, Danielle Glisovich and Megan Wong.
A Tulane recruit, Barker entered Friday’s preliminaries with the second-fastest qualifying time in the backstroke.
“We were not in the right mindset on Friday,” Barker said.
Stevenson overcame a disappointing performance in the preliminaries to place sixth with 65 points. Junior Iza Pelka had the Patriots’ top individual effort with a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:51.72). She also won her consolation bracket in the 500 freestyle (4:59.66) to finish seventh.
“A couple of us had been down to state before, and we knew that it was really hard to do better after the sectionals,” Pelka said.
More Top Picks Best Water Pillows For Sleeping
“The couple of us that did make it back, we wanted to swim for the seniors because it was their last meet and see if we could move up a place and score some points for our team.”
Seniors Jessica Lenhart and Rachel Song finished seventh and ninth respectively in the 100 butterfly. Sophomore Ashley Carollo raced sixth in the 100 backstroke. Morgan Bosse, Song, Carollo and Pelka made up the 400 freestyle relay that finished fifth.
“In the (400) relay that was our last swim and we just wanted to find that last bit of energy,” Pelka said. “It might not have been the time we wanted, but finishing fifth in that relay was a great way to end it.”
In diving, Libertyville senior Morgan Paul finished eighth (407.40) and Deerfield senior Lindsay Guare was 11th (393.80).
“I was 12th last year, and coming in and making the final 12 again was really important to me,” Guare said.
“In such a high pressure meet having solid dives means so much, and I put everything pretty much straight up and down and that’s all you can ask for.”
Junior Sydney Colburn was 11th in the 100 breastroke for Deerfield.
Lake Forest senior Maddie Smith swam her fastest in the 50 freestyle (23.18). She was in the consolation bracket, and finished seventh.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance writer for the News-Sun.