To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
That quote by legendary long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine graced a small sheet of paper on a bulletin board along the New Trier pool deck Saturday at the Illinois girls state swimming and diving meet, and was quickly lived up to by St. Charles North in the meet’s first championship race.
The North Stars’ 200-yard medley relay team trailed Evanston after the first leg, but senior Angie Chokran dominated the breaststroke — the second leg — and St. Charles North held on to win the event and the school’s first swimming state championship. “The first relay was breathtaking, really,” Chokran said. “If you saw me on the side of the pool (after the breaststroke), I was basically on the ground, not even conscious of how loud I was.
The win by the medley relay — made up of Chokran, sophomore Lauren Reynolds, senior Taylor Gannon and junior Kirsten Hutchinson — anchored St. Charles’ North seventh-place finish. The North Stars finished with 63 points, while Rosary picked up its fourth consecutive team title with 177 points.
The medley relay’s winning time of 1:45.82 was .25 seconds ahead of second-place Rosary.
St. Charles North entered the finals seeded fourth overall by Lyons Township, Rosary and Evanston. “We just wanted to do our best,” said Reynolds, who also finished seventh in the 100-yard backstroke (57.96). “(At state), anything’s a possibility.”
Chokran swam in all three relays for the North Stars on Saturday. The senior teamed with junior Jennifer Clay, senior Jessica England and sophomore Lauren Zima to take seventh in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:34.12), and partnered with Hutchinson, Clay and sophomore Allie Smith to finish 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:38.03).
“This day has been kind of a whirlwind,” Chokran said. “A lot of training has gone into it, a lot of preparation, a lot of fun with my teammates, of course.”
England finished ninth overall for the North Stars in the 500-freestyle (5:03.74).
St. Charles North had a handful of other swimmers qualify for state but not advance out of Friday’s preliminaries. England finished 15th overall in the 200-yard freestyle and Zima was 15th in the 100-yard butterfly and 26th in the 500-yard freestyle.
Smith finished 21st in the 50-yard freestyle while Clay took 29th in the 200 free and 40th in the 200-yard individual medley. Gannon was 29th in the butterfly and junior Meridith Beird finished 42nd overall in diving.
St. Charles East
Emma Smith got an unexpected compliment as she strode to the medal stand at the Illinois girls swimming and diving state meet Saturday at New Trier.
As the St. Charles East sophomore received the second-place medal for her performance in the 500-yard freestyle, Notre Dame coach Derek Amerman, who handed out the awards, had a simple message for her.
Thank you.
Notre Dame junior Rebecca Stoughton won the individual title in the 500 free, nearly four seconds ahead of Smith, but Amerman wanted to thank the Saints’ sophomore for pushing his competitor virtually the entire race.
“Emma took off today like gangbusters,” Amerman said. “She did a great job getting going and dropped her time by another second, so she did great.”
Smith appreciated the brief compliment.
“That was really nice for him to say that,” Smith said. “(Stoughton) is really fast and she was quite far ahead in prelims.”
The Notre Dame junior’s prelim time of 4:48.18 was more than nine seconds faster than Smith (4:57.33). Stoughton lost some speed in the championship heat, though, and finished in 4:52.40. Smith, meanwhile, improved her time and finished in a personal-best 4:56.12.
That strategy was to focus on the third and fourth set of 100-yard swims and making sure the splits were as steady and consistent as the rest of her race.
The 500 was not Smith’s only event Saturday. The sophomore finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:52.71) and teamed with senior Hayley Krzeczowski, sophomore Ashley Shanel and senior Kayla Scott to take 11th in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Scott also took third in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.41) and eighth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:07.64), and joined freshman Nicole Chapko, Krzeczowski, and senior Juliet Suess to take 12th in the 200-yard medley relay as St. Charles East earned a 12th-place team finish.
The Saints finished with 41 points. Rosary won its fourth consecutive state title with 177 points.
St. Charles East had a handful of swimmers qualify for state but not advance out of Friday’s preliminaries. Chapko finished 21st in the 200-yard individual medley and 24th in 100-yard breaststroke, Suess took 25th in the 50-yard freestyle and 28th in the 100 free, Krzeczowski was 38th in the 100-yard butterfly and Shanel finished 40th in the 500-yard freestyle.
The 200-yard freestyle relay of Chapko, Smith, Suess and Krzeczowski finished 16th.
Geneva
Rylee Merges made history when she became the first girl swimmer from Geneva High School to qualify for the state meet.
Anyone who follows in her footsteps will have a lot to live up to.
Only a freshman, Merges swam to 18th overall in the 200-yard individual medley during Friday’s preliminary races with a time of 2:08.56. While not good enough to qualify for Saturday’s finals (top 12 times), the time put her well into the top half of one of the meet’s deepest fields.
Later in the prelims, Merges swam a time of 54.16 seconds in the 100 freestyle, which put her in 27th place overall.
Batavia
In her first state meet experience, Batavia sophomore Shannon Adeszko laid the foundation for future success.
She did not advance to the finals in either of her events, but in the 100 butterfly she clocked a time of 59.13 seconds to finish 27th overall, a strong finish in a talent–heavy event.
She clocked a time of 2:13.86 in the 200 individual medley for a solid showing in that race.
