I think Loyola is just going to destroy at State, because their girls seemed to make reasonable drops, but not crazy 3-6 second drops. New Trier had some big hits and some big misses. Evanston looked like it was making a run at trying to win the meet. Those girls were dropping huge chunks of time, as were GBN and GBS girls. I cannot believe how fast the GBN relays got. They outswam what I would've predicted and laid down some huge times.
I know it's a blanket statement and people won't be necessarily happy (feel free to comment if you think I'm wrong!), but I think Evanston, GBN, and GBS will be struggling to hold on for next week. Too much time, too quickly. It's not impossible to hold on, but it's unlikely to fully taper and then swim full loads 6 and 7 days later and get faster. I know you've heard this before, so let's get to the HIGHLIGHTS!
Medley
... Both GBS and Evanston had huge back and breast legs. Capota and Wells (GBS) 27.26 and 28.17. Haden and Woods (EVAN) 27.40 and 28.96. With drops of roughly 3.5-4.5 seconds, I have to believe that there isn't going to be much left to drop next week and they'll be trying to just hold their seed time. They're currently seeded 4th and 7th respectively. I don't expect either to hold. Huge free split by Evanson's Collins (23.56).
... Loyola seems in control. Dropped a second off their seed for 1:47.70. Seeded 12th for Friday. Think they'll drop time? I do. (BTW - Jardeleza had the best back split by far with 26.42. 8 tenths over the next fastest. That's flying.)
... A huge surprise was NT not qualifying their medley. The breast and free legs held their own, but they didn't get nearly enough out of their back (29.31) and fly (26.03) legs. That's a tough loss for those girls.
200 FR
I like how this event is shaping up for all of the qualifiers and think it should get better next week. Olivia Andrew won with 1:52.94, Emma Helgeson (1:53.16), Grace Tierney (1:53.62), Mia Haggerty (1:54.16) and Julia Green (1:54.72).
... Loyola and NT both get 2 girls through in this event.
200 IM
Evanston and GBN continue to swim super fast and drop lots of time. NT suffers it's 2nd big setback as Hope Hayward adds a lot of time to miss the cut. She's clearly not totally rested and that's really too bad that she wasn't able to make the cut yesterday. That's a hard break.
... Honore Collins wins in 2:06.39 and drops 4+ seconds off her seed. Her middle 100 was crazy = 31.82 + 36.83 = 1:08.65
... Nicole Retondo had a nice swim and dropped 2 seconds to finish at 2:08.24. That should set up well for next week. (35.70 in the breast split... very fast)
... GBN gets two through! Tiffany Qiao and Erin Oliphant (2:08.45 and 2:08.51) had nice drops to make the cut, 4 and 3 seconds respectively.
50 FR
8 girls made the cut and none were huge drops (meaning, more than .5). Looks good for next week.
... Katie Wells wins in 23.65
... Ruby Powell 2nd in 24.05
... Morgan Conley 3rd in 24.11
NT gets 2 through as does Loyola.
Diving
NT gets 2 through and Loyola gets 1. All three could be scoring threats. Very important in team points.
100 FLY
Loyola looks like they'll score some good points here with Maria Jardeleza and Maria Kyle. Azra Avdic could play a big role and "steal" some points away. She only dropped a tenth off her seed, so I'm looking for her to go really fast at state.
I wonder why NT's Samantha Adams wasn't on the medley, even if just to help get the relay though.
... Caylee Hamilton (Woodstock) gets in with a quick 57.41
... Iana Wolff (EVAN), Diana Capota (GBS), Samantha Adams (NT), and Colleen Doolan (GBN) all get through... 57.41, 57.62, 57.74, 57.76, 58.27.
100 FR
The seniors took the top 3 spots in quick fashion. GBN and NT get 2 through, Loyola misses getting their 2nd through by .03. 9 girls in the event under 54.00! ... Kelly Cordes (GBS) goes out hard (24.44) and has enough to win in 51.82 over Abigail Rosenberg (GBN) 51.98.
... Emma Helgeson (Niles West) closed in 26.95 and nearly caught Cordes 51.99.
...Olivia Andrew, Brittany Bishop, Selma Jukic, Morgan Conley, and Sabrina Baxamusa round out the qualifiers... 52.33, 52.35, 52.84, 53.29, 53.38.
500 FR
The most impressive thing is that Azra Avdic is doing the fly/500 almost-double. I don't know anything about her, but she sounds tough and it'd be awesome to watch her workouts.
The Tierney's of Loyola - Grace and Ella - look good and finished 1st and 4th (5:02.96 and 5:08.79).
... Grace dropped almost 2 seconds and Ella added 5. I think both will be fine for next weekend.
... Avdic, again, goes her seed time and finishes 2nd in 5:03.59. I really can't wait to watch her in finals doing both the fly and 500!
... NT gets Mia Haggerty through in 5:09.28 and Julia Green drops 4.5 seconds to just barely sneak in. Good thing she closed in the 3rd fastest 50, otherwise that'd
200 FR RE
The Glenbrook schools went nuts and had a great race to win. Katie Wells split 22.91 and just barely missed touching out rival school GBN. GBN takes it 1:36.24 to 1:36.37. They go into Friday seeded 5th and 6th.
... Rosenberg (GBN) posts a great 23.98 to lead off.
... NT gets in with 1:36.76 and two sub 24s from Retondo and Bishop in the last 100 (23.78 and 23.96).
... Deerfield has a nice drop and finishes 4th with a state cut. Ruby Powell leads off in 24.04.
... Loyola and Evanston both make the cut in 1:37.43 and 1:38.47. All 24's from Loyola and a big 23.73 from Evanston's Ana Woods.
100 Back
Loyola and Evanston both get 2 girls through. Deerfield keeps the momentum from Powell as she wins the back in 56.15 over Maria Jardeleza (56.52).
... Haden (EVAN) drops down 2 seconds to 57.73
... Teammate Honore Collins drops about 1.5s down to 58.14
... Kolar (Loyola) adds a little to her seed, but still makes the cut.
... After just missing out earlier in the meet, senior Erin Patrick from Maine South qualifies by less than a tenth. After just missing it earlier, it's got to feel good to get this one. Tough to bounce back like that. Good job to her!
100 Breast
... Ana Woods keeps rolling and wins in 1:04.59 over Katie Wells 1:05.48. That's a half second faster than Wells was at Sectionals last year.
... Loyola and NT both get two girls through. Sophia Funck and Claire Voss from Loyola in 1:06.88 and 1:07.22. Retondo and Hayward in 1:06.39 and 1:07.01.
400 FR Relay
GBN swam absolutely lights on on this relay! They dropped 6.5 seconds to finish at 3:30.52 which seeds them at 3rd for State.
... Loyola dropped less than a second off their seed to finish 2nd in 3:31.87.
... Evanston drops over 5 seconds to finish 3rd in 3:34.32. Ana Woods completes a pretty tricky almost triple (200 free relay, 100 breast, 400 free relay) with an impressive 52.97. That's going to be a tough performance to repeat in 6/7 days.
... Niles North has an excellent race and finishes ahead of NT and GBS in 3:34.39. Fastest split of the meet goes to Azra Avdic (51.37).
... NT drops 2.5s to finish at 3:35.24 with solid swims all around.
... GBS gets a big swim from Kelly Cordes (52.34) to help them get the cut and finish in 3:35.54.