It didn't disappoint. Fast swimming, lots of drama, an end to another good year.
Inside I'll recap the biggest highlights and storylines of the meet.
Inside I'll recap the biggest highlights and storylines of the meet.
FRIDAY
It's a meet that started in a way I didn't expect. I've never heard booing at a State meet before, but after the top 200 free heats were stood up on the blocks three (or so) times due to a faulty starting device, the boos were loud. Eventually it got sorted out, but there were a lot of sketchy starts until that happened.
DGN was the biggest positive surprise to me. After a monster sectionals with enormous time drops, they kept on dropping more time and got themselves in great scoring position. I don't know who will be the Senior of the Meet, but my vote is for Gabrielle Serniute (with Natalie McGovern a close second).
Other than the starting issues, the other biggest negative surprise was NT. When's the last time NT didn't have an individual scoring top 6? They only had one in the bottom 6 and one relay top 6 and top 12. That's crazy. That team will be rearing to prove itself next year.
No state records. 200 FR was safe, 500 FR was safe, 100 breast was safe.
Lane 4. Did anyone notice that a ton of girls were starting super slow out of lane 4?
Reilly Lanigan has a good 200 IM, but misses top 6 in the fly. I was shocked by this, as were many others on deck. She looked so good in the IM. Maybe she was trying to save up a little too much.
Relay DQs? Anyone else notice a lot of relays that should've gotten DQ'd and didn't get called? Especially on Friday in the 200 medley and 200 free relays I saw a lot of relays with exchanges that weren't even questionable, just flat out DQs. I was shocked that they weren't called.
SATURDAY
Saturday had lots of good racing. Even though Loyola had what I would call an off meet, they are so fast and deep that it didn't matter. The real fun was the fight for event championships and the fight for 2nd in the team battle.
Winning the medley for DGN would've be huge, but luckily LF and Rosary also faltered a bit and dropped places. NV put together a huge medley on Saturday with impressive back and fly splits to seal the deal. I thought that Pyshnenko would've been able to run down a couple relays at least, but she couldn't. A 23.09 for her isn't very good.
No state records this year for Jacobsen, but Grace Tierney made a nice surge in the backhalf to get 2nd in front of Falconer, who tried to push the front half in order to get a victory. Falconer has the fastest feet on her flip turn. Once her feet come over, they get to the wall so fast. It was really cool to watch. She and Jacobsen also share an interesting technique thing: they do thumb first entry on their free. Just goes to show that it's about what you do under that water, not above. Olivia Andrew has a great swim and posted a time good enough for third overall.
Alexis Yager lived up to the hype. She laid low on the fly and back, then surged with a really big, long and powerful breaststroke to set up her victory. Her breast made Serniute look like she was standing still and Serniute posted a 36.4 (not slow at all).
The 50 free wasn't close. Braunecker was out of the blocks first, first to the turn, first to the wall. At that point I thought we might see her go sub 50 in the 100.
For the fly and back, I was really happy to see the senior studs get their victories. Kelly McNamara in the fly and Natalie McGovern in the back. The fly was close, but McNamara had a great last wall and underwater to win it. That was actually the same case with McGovern, too. I think I saw McGovern look underwater on the last wall to see where Jardeleza was, and when she saw she was ahead, she just kept kicking underwater to increase her lead.
A notable near-double performance waas Azra Avdic (Niles North) who finaled in both the fly and 500, and still managed to drop time in the 500. That's incredible. The Guyetts did a good job holding their times in the 500. Audrey seemed off a bit the whole weekend, but it was cool to see her. Monica had a great swim Friday and, though she was visibly tired on Saturday, still did really well in her individuals and 400 free.
The 400 free relay was huge. 2nd place was decided by this event. DGN had 96, Rosary 94, and LF 88. If LF put Pyshnenko in, they could win the relay and take 2nd. They didn't and got 4th. That hurts. Instead, Rosary finishes 3rd in the relay and DGN holds on to 4th in the relay. The two schools end up tying for 2nd. The last 100 was super loud in the pool and one of the reasons that I prefer Evanston to NT for the State Meet. When things get serious and the crowd roars, it is an unreal atmosphere that cannot be duplicated. Great job to all the girls on the 400 free relay. That was exciting!
A couple last notes - Fremd got all their relays and a few individuals for a great weekend. Mundelein didn't get their relays in top 6, but Falconer got her points and Jennifer Kordik scored in both her individuals to help the team to an 8th place finish. GBN had a great meet and finished 9th. I was shocked at how well they did after such a fast sectionals. Good job to all these teams!
Well, I know that this wasn't the usual meet recap, but this meet is built on all really fast swimmers, so I had to treat it a bit differently. If you didn't get to watch the meet, you missed out. What else can I say about that? If you don't have a way to get State tickets, you need to get different friends, because it's a meet worth watching every year.
(Here are the results: https://wildkitaquatics.com/toptimes/swimtimes/girls/2014/State/)
Great job to all swimmers and coaches on an excellent season! I loved getting to watch all of these swimmers in one place at one time that I've written about this season. Seniors, good luck at college. Everyone else, get back to work.
Prelims Finals
@finals_prelims
[email protected]
It's a meet that started in a way I didn't expect. I've never heard booing at a State meet before, but after the top 200 free heats were stood up on the blocks three (or so) times due to a faulty starting device, the boos were loud. Eventually it got sorted out, but there were a lot of sketchy starts until that happened.
DGN was the biggest positive surprise to me. After a monster sectionals with enormous time drops, they kept on dropping more time and got themselves in great scoring position. I don't know who will be the Senior of the Meet, but my vote is for Gabrielle Serniute (with Natalie McGovern a close second).
Other than the starting issues, the other biggest negative surprise was NT. When's the last time NT didn't have an individual scoring top 6? They only had one in the bottom 6 and one relay top 6 and top 12. That's crazy. That team will be rearing to prove itself next year.
No state records. 200 FR was safe, 500 FR was safe, 100 breast was safe.
Lane 4. Did anyone notice that a ton of girls were starting super slow out of lane 4?
Reilly Lanigan has a good 200 IM, but misses top 6 in the fly. I was shocked by this, as were many others on deck. She looked so good in the IM. Maybe she was trying to save up a little too much.
Relay DQs? Anyone else notice a lot of relays that should've gotten DQ'd and didn't get called? Especially on Friday in the 200 medley and 200 free relays I saw a lot of relays with exchanges that weren't even questionable, just flat out DQs. I was shocked that they weren't called.
SATURDAY
Saturday had lots of good racing. Even though Loyola had what I would call an off meet, they are so fast and deep that it didn't matter. The real fun was the fight for event championships and the fight for 2nd in the team battle.
Winning the medley for DGN would've be huge, but luckily LF and Rosary also faltered a bit and dropped places. NV put together a huge medley on Saturday with impressive back and fly splits to seal the deal. I thought that Pyshnenko would've been able to run down a couple relays at least, but she couldn't. A 23.09 for her isn't very good.
No state records this year for Jacobsen, but Grace Tierney made a nice surge in the backhalf to get 2nd in front of Falconer, who tried to push the front half in order to get a victory. Falconer has the fastest feet on her flip turn. Once her feet come over, they get to the wall so fast. It was really cool to watch. She and Jacobsen also share an interesting technique thing: they do thumb first entry on their free. Just goes to show that it's about what you do under that water, not above. Olivia Andrew has a great swim and posted a time good enough for third overall.
Alexis Yager lived up to the hype. She laid low on the fly and back, then surged with a really big, long and powerful breaststroke to set up her victory. Her breast made Serniute look like she was standing still and Serniute posted a 36.4 (not slow at all).
The 50 free wasn't close. Braunecker was out of the blocks first, first to the turn, first to the wall. At that point I thought we might see her go sub 50 in the 100.
For the fly and back, I was really happy to see the senior studs get their victories. Kelly McNamara in the fly and Natalie McGovern in the back. The fly was close, but McNamara had a great last wall and underwater to win it. That was actually the same case with McGovern, too. I think I saw McGovern look underwater on the last wall to see where Jardeleza was, and when she saw she was ahead, she just kept kicking underwater to increase her lead.
A notable near-double performance waas Azra Avdic (Niles North) who finaled in both the fly and 500, and still managed to drop time in the 500. That's incredible. The Guyetts did a good job holding their times in the 500. Audrey seemed off a bit the whole weekend, but it was cool to see her. Monica had a great swim Friday and, though she was visibly tired on Saturday, still did really well in her individuals and 400 free.
The 400 free relay was huge. 2nd place was decided by this event. DGN had 96, Rosary 94, and LF 88. If LF put Pyshnenko in, they could win the relay and take 2nd. They didn't and got 4th. That hurts. Instead, Rosary finishes 3rd in the relay and DGN holds on to 4th in the relay. The two schools end up tying for 2nd. The last 100 was super loud in the pool and one of the reasons that I prefer Evanston to NT for the State Meet. When things get serious and the crowd roars, it is an unreal atmosphere that cannot be duplicated. Great job to all the girls on the 400 free relay. That was exciting!
A couple last notes - Fremd got all their relays and a few individuals for a great weekend. Mundelein didn't get their relays in top 6, but Falconer got her points and Jennifer Kordik scored in both her individuals to help the team to an 8th place finish. GBN had a great meet and finished 9th. I was shocked at how well they did after such a fast sectionals. Good job to all these teams!
Well, I know that this wasn't the usual meet recap, but this meet is built on all really fast swimmers, so I had to treat it a bit differently. If you didn't get to watch the meet, you missed out. What else can I say about that? If you don't have a way to get State tickets, you need to get different friends, because it's a meet worth watching every year.
(Here are the results: https://wildkitaquatics.com/toptimes/swimtimes/girls/2014/State/)
Great job to all swimmers and coaches on an excellent season! I loved getting to watch all of these swimmers in one place at one time that I've written about this season. Seniors, good luck at college. Everyone else, get back to work.
Prelims Finals
@finals_prelims
[email protected]