By Bobby Narang
The future looks bright for the St. Charles North High School girls swimming team.
But the present shines as well.
The North Stars concluded their season in style, by scoring 228 points to win the St. Charles North Sectional championship Saturday afternoon. St. Charles East managed to finish second with 204 points and West Chicago took third place with 127 points.
The North Stars entered the final meet of the season with only one senior, Payton Baxter, on their roster. Yet, the North Stars put on a dominating show by winning six of the eight swimming events and notching second place in six of the eight events.
St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said Baxter, a University of Cincinnati recruit, held the team together during a trying season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m really excited for the kids,” Rooney said. “I wanted to just have a championship meet. They really took advantage of it. Plus, I was really happy to have the girls conclude the season with a second place in the virtual State meet. There were no relays involved in the virtual meet, just individual swims, but it was great.”
Neuqua Valley was awarded the virtual State championship. The Illinois High School Coaches Association held the online comparison State championship virtually through database.
“We’re going to miss Payton. She carried this team through a season where nobody knew what tomorrow was bringing. She came in every day and trained hard and kept the girls positive and optimistic. I’m really looking forward to our future. We’ve got a great group of girls returning. I like to see us make a run at State next year.”
St. Charles North junior Angelina Messina is part of the reasoning behind Rooney’s optimism for the future. She set a new pool record time of, 2.59 in the 200-yard intermediate medley. Messina added a first place medal in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.85) and took second in the 100 free (52.02).
“(Second place in the State meet virtual comparison) meant so much to all of us,” Messina said. “It showed that all of our hard work paid off this season. I was in utter shock when I found out Sunday morning. We were so happy to just win on Saturday. It was an amazing meet. We all performed super well, and we were thankful for the opportunity because it was definitely looking at one point not good that we were even going to have a season.”
Neuqua Valley won the Metea Valley Sectional in Aurora with 302 points and was followed by Oswego East, 235; Naperville North, 190; rosary, 172; and Naperville Central, 169.
Neuqua Valley senior McKenna Stone won four events, 200-yard individual medley, 2:00.75; 50-yard freestyle, :22.70; 100-yard butterfly, :53.04 100-yard breastroke, 1:01.77.
Cross country update:
The Downers Grove South boys and girls cross country programs had a stellar day at the Class 3A Marist Regional Saturday morning. Sophia McNerney won the girls varsity race in a time of 17 minutes, 25.86 to lead her team to the team championship. The Mustangs tallied 46 points to nudge past Downers Grove North, 48 points, and Hinsdale Central, 70.
Downers Grove South girls cross country head coach Doug Plunkett noted that several of his runners achieved personal best times.
“The girls did great,” Plunkett said. “It was a great course, set up well. It was flat, fast, and the weather cooperated. We feel we had a very good day.
“Sophia led the way. We came in here expecting her to be in the hunt to win it, and she just took care of business. She’s been running with a lot of confidence, and it showed today. She was able to pull away from the rest of the lead pack in the second half of the race and finished strong.”
In the boys race, Downers Grove South junior Tim Neumann, just like McNerney, kept his record undefeated on the season by posting a winning time of 14:50.27. Downers Grove North took home the sectional team championship with 35 points to beat out Hinsdale Central, 48, and Downers Grove South, 101.
“Last year I was new to the sport, and would run with the seniors because I loved running and they taught me a lot,” Neumann said. “I would go head-first in a lot of my races. At State, I went out really fast and blew up in the last mile
“This season I don’t die out and I’m a lot more confident. My goal is to win everything. I was happy with my race today. Near the end, I kept looking back and saw the (Hinsdale Central) runner (Daniel Watcke, 14:59.7) kept getting closer. It was scary. But this season I knew I was fit. I think I worked really hard, and knew if I worked hard, I could go undefeated.”
• Season-ending sectional meets Saturday for qualifiers from regional meets in 3A will include Lyons, Hoffman Estates, Whitney Young, and Normal Community. Class 2A meets will include Lakes High School in Lake Villa and Chicago Latin High School. Class 1A boys and girls meets will include Harvest Christian in Elgin.
• In Class 3A meets at Oswego East, Naperville North won both boys and girls. In girls, North scored an unblemished 15 points by taking the first five places and was followed by Oswego East, 75; Oswego, 85; Neuqua Valley, 105; Naperville Central, 116; Metea Valley, 171; West Aurora, 193.
In boys, North scored 95 points and was followed by Neuqua Valley, 64; Waubonsie Valley, 94; Naperville Central, 95; Oswego, 101; Oswego East, 142; and West Aurora, 171. There were 11 schools in the competition.
• In Class 2A meets at Kaneland High School, Kaneland won the boys run with 63 points, followed by Burlington Central, 78; Hampshire, 79; Sycamore, 80; Marmion Academy, 112; Sandwich, 177.
In girls, Dixon won the meet with 23 points and was followed by Kaneland, 74; Burlington Central, 88; and Sycamore, 94.
• In Class 2A meets at St. Francis in Wheaton, Benet Academy won both boys and girls meets. In girls Benet scored 19 points, followed by Nazareth, 90; Hinsdale South, 108; St. Francis, 11;1.
In boys, Benet scored 35 points followed by St. Francis, 53; Fenwick, 62, Glenbard South, 98; Hinsdale South, 102.
• In Class 1A boys at Harvest Christian in Elgin, Harvest Christian won with 34 points; Aurora Central Catholic, 71; Northridge Prep, 71; Wheaton Academy, 98; Montini, 126. Eleven schools were in the competition.
In girls, IC Catholic Elmhurst took first place with 28; Rosary in Aurora was second with 40; Wheaton Academy, 89; Harvest Christian, 123; Aurora Central Catholic, 156; Timothy Christian, 183.