Sports

Evanston Swimmers Earn Runner-Up Finish At Conference Meet

The Wildkits secured a second place overall finish by outscoring Glenbrook South by a 349.5 to 286 margin in the six-team meet.

Written by Dennis Mahoney.

Even after beating Glenbrook South in a dual meet at the end of the swimming season, Evanston coach Kevin Auger wasn’t taking anything for granted.

So he had his swimmers target the Titans on an individual basis for Saturday’s Central Suburban League South division championship meet and turned it into another “dual meet” between the two schools.

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That strategy paid off. This time the Wildkits really rose to the occasion, and secured a second place overall finish by outscoring South by a 349.5 to 286 margin in the six-team meet.

New Trier, the defending state champion, repeated as the conference champ with a total of 461.5 points. Maine South (162), Niles West (92) and Waukegan (34) rounded out the team standings.

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ETHS outscored GBS in every event except the 50-yard freestyle and diving and earned its highest team finish since 2010. Teams were permitted three entries per individual event instead of the usual two, as is the custom for dual meets.

“We haven’t beaten GBS here in a couple of years, so it was nice to be able to climb that ladder, even if it’s only one rung at a time. Absolutely, we feel like we won second place,” Auger said. “Our goal from the beginning of the season was to be second at this meet.

“At the dual meet we had some breakthrough swims and you could see how competitive our girls are. That’s how it went down again today. We expected kids to drop times, because it’s that time of year. The kids who were suited (swam in their fast suits) swam lifetime bests, and the others were at or near their season bests.

“Right from the JV (junior varsity) invitational through the freshman meet and today, we had kids who stepped up and swam lifetime bests. Now it’s full speed ahead for us for next week (sectional qualifying). All systems are go.”

ETHS used a strong start to set the tone. Before the first “break” in the meet, the Wildkits had improved their pre-meet seedings in the 200-yard medley relay, 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle and never looked back in the team race after that.

Sophomores Honore Collins, Iana Wolff and Ana Woods shared the spotlight for Evanston, just like they have all season. All three flashed the potential to qualify for the Illinois High School Association state finals.

Collins collected a second place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:00.35) and added a fourth in the200 IM in 2:15.08. She teamed with Woods, Wolff and senior Rosselyn Lopez to place runnerup in the medley relay (1:50.30) and joined Wolf, Paige Haden and Millie Rosen for a second place finish in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:43.36.

Wolff was barely nosed out of a championship in the 100 butterfly, by a margin of 59.15 to 59.24 by New Trier’s Samantha Adams, after tying for fifth place in the open 50 in 25.21. Both times were season bests for the sophomore standout.

“Iana almost gave us a gold in that fly race,” Auger said. “But she had a great meet for us. All of her swims were season bests and she was probably our most consistent swimmer today. I’m quite happy with the way she swam, right down to the last relay. That’s what we need from her next week --- four good swims, not just two.”

Woods contributed a fourth in the 100 freestyle (54.81) and a third in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.53, just off her season best) while also swimming the freestyle leg for the medley relay. Woods’ effort in the breaststroke was particularly impressive. She was only seeded fourth in a loaded field that also included defending champ Nicole Retondo of New Trier, Katie Wells of GBS and the eventual winner, Kara Lucenti of New Trier, who broke Retondo’s old conference record with a new mark of 1:05.72.

Auger had indicated prior to the relay race that he might switch Woods and Lopez between the breaststroke and freestyle for the sectional showdown, but after the meet said he didn’t think it likely any changes would be made by the Kits.

“It would really just be splitting hairs, even though Ana is a little faster than Rosselyn in both strokes,” he said. “Right now, I don’t see a reason to change. Rosselyn is actually a little more of a sprinter in the freestyle than she is in the breaststroke, anyway.”

Also scoring top five individual finishes for Evanston were Mia Polinski, fifth in the 200 IM in 2:15.35 and fifth in the 500 freestyle in 5:23.86; Maddie Managlia, fourth in the butterfly in 1:00.63; Min King, fifth in the butterfly in 1:01.29; Haden, fourth in the backstroke in 1:01.04; Rosen, fifth in the 100 freestyle in 54.94; and Lopez, fifth in the breaststroke in 1:09.15.

While the swimmers are pointed in the right direction for the sectional next Saturday, assistant coach Aaron Melnick is just hoping his beat-up crew of divers is 100 percent healthy in their bid to make it Downstate.

On Saturday, junior Katie Budde scored a fifth place finish with 381.40 points while sophomore Andrea Gouvea managed a seventh at 333.95. Budde is battling a bad knee and Gouvea is plagued by a severe case of shin splints. The sophomore also had the bad luck to suffer a couple of chipped teeth in a practice mishap early in the week that limited her tuneup for the conference meet.

“I think they both have a strong shot at state qualifying,” Melnick said. “I don’t think Katie dove great today, she just dove well. We’re looking at a new last round dive for Andrea. I want them both to be able to score 100 points over the last three dives. Katie got there today, but Andrea was a little short.”


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