WEGO’s girls’ swim team won the Upstate Eight Conference Championship hosted by West Chicago Community High School on October 21. Three freshmen broke records in what would become a history-making swim meet.
The swim team secured victory in the UEC conference championship for the fourth consecutive year. The Varsity team scored a total of 342 points, and the junior varsity (JV) team won with a score of 328 points, breaking three freshmen records in the process.
“It’s awesome. It feels good to see their hard work pay off,” JV coach Josh May said.
The first freshman record in the 200 medley relay was broken by freshmen swimmers Katherine Smith, Ryann Lehan and Claire Schumacher, as well as sophomore Maddie Seykora with a time of 1:53.07, shaving 2 seconds from the previous record.
Additionally, the freshman relay team consisting of Emery Larsen, Schumacher, Seykora, and Rowan Ambre, broke the 200 freestyle relay record with a time of 1:44.29.
The last record shattered during the UEC meet – set in 1996 for the 400 freestyle relay – was the longest standing record left to be broken. Swimmers Seykora, Smith, Ambre, and Larson, beat the 27-year-old record by 4 seconds, finishing with a time of 3:50.05.
The girls’ swim team is unique in that it is a coop team, meaning the athletes come from three different schools: WCCHS, as well as Geneva and Batavia High Schools. They practice together, compete together, and are – in every essence – one team.
“Coach Nick is very good about taper, and weightlifting, and all of those kinds of things. He makes sure that they’re a team, which I think is important,” swim parent Morgan Banasiak said. Banasiak’s daughter, Tessa, is a junior, and multi-year competitor on the team.
While the team has had a strong season overall, the UEC meet was one in which many swimmers saw significant drops in time.
Senior Allison Faulkner dropped 11.42 seconds in the Varsity 500-yard freestyle event for a time of 5:39.82, placing second in the event.
“The race felt like it went by super fast, but I was very excited to see my time and place second,” Faulkner said.
In the Varsity 200-yard individual medley (IM), senior Hollyn Ambre reduced her time by 6.26 seconds over previous meets, finishing at a time of 2:14.11, coming in first place.
“It was actually pretty surprising to have gotten first, I raced one of our top IM swimmers and was able to just out touch her,” Ambre said.
Continuing the trend, JV swimmer Jessie Bullman, a sophomore, clocked in at 2:17.30 in the 200-yard freestyle, dropping 28.09 seconds from her previous best time of 2:45.39. Further, JV swimmer Tessa Banasiak, a junior at WEGO, improved her 100-yard butterfly time by 8 seconds for a time of 1:10.79 and placed first in the heat, fourth overall.
While it may sound like the team jumped into the water feet first, as Coach Nick Parry explained, the UEC meet was a challenging one.
“Our Varsity, this is a tough meet for them. They’re pretty tired, they’re pretty worn down just from training. So, for them to come out and win all but one event was nice,” Parry said.
The team is now looking toward IHSA Sectionals, which will be held on Nov. 4 at St. Charles East High School.
