Waubonsie and Senior Night

During a great meet, on Senior Night at TF South, all of the swimmers who ended their seasons that night showed great improvements.

We saw drops as big as 10 seconds in a 50 freestyle, and 26 seconds in the 500.

The Juniors did a wonderful job honoring the seniors, and the seniors led the team with some very impressive swims.

At Waubonsie Valley on Saturday, it was Breaststroke & Distance day!!  Ashley dropped over 3 seconds in her 100 Breast and Maggie dropped 2+ seconds in the same event.  

Shelly, Lindsey and Erin posted their lifetime bests in the 500, and the team is looking more and more prepared to represent Marian well in our championship meets.

Candice posted her best ever 100 Butterfly time, and we had many other very good swims.

Next week is our Conference championships in Aurora, and about half the team will be completing their season on Sunday.

Senior Night - T.F. South

Wednesday, October 21 is Senior Night at T.F. South in Lansing - Click Here for Directions

The girls have been training hard over the past two weeks and hope to show some improvement in our last dual meet.  For some of the swimmers, this will be their last competition for the season - so come out and cheer on these girls in their last meet.

The Varsity team, along with some of the JV, will compete at Waubonsie Valley on Saturday in the Fox Valley Swim Invitational..

Columbus Day Weekend - Ending the Season

I just want to remind everyone that we will be practicing at regular time on Monday.  Some people only have 2 weeks of season left, and the Conference team only has 3 weeks left from today.  That means I only have about 4 weeks left to give evil workouts and sets to the Sectional team.  I know that makes you sad, but there's always next year.

Our next meet is our Senior night at T.F. South on October 22nd, and then we have the Waubonsie Valley Invite on Saturday October 25th.

Conference is on Sunday November 2nd.

Sandburg Invitational & A Look Forward

Well, that was the fastest meet we have ever swam in.

Again, we had some season best times and some good repeats after last night's meet at Richards.  The Sanburg Invitational marks the official halfway point of the season, and the girls are preparing for the last 6 weeks of the season.  

Our next meet will be at Andrew, in Tinley Park, on Wednesday at 5:00, and after that we don't compete again until October 22nd when we travel to T.F. South.   We will be focused on our training and preparing for our last two regular season meets on the 22nd and 25th.  

In the next 2 1/2 weeks, we will decide on our Conference and Sectional Line-ups.  We will announce these as soon as possible so the swimmers can plan on when their final meets will be.  Anyone who does not make the Fresh/Soph or Varsity Conference team will finish their season at either the T.F. South dual meet, or the Waubonsie Valley Invite on the 25th.  If we have at least 8 girls that do not make those teams, we will take those 8 girls to the JV Conference championships on Sunday, October 26th.

1st Place at Richards - Bulldog Relays

What a fantastic night for Marian Catholic Swimming.  

The girls won their 2nd straight title at Richards, and won 7 of the night's 12 events.

The high point of the evening was in the 11th event when the Fresh/Soph team of Katelyn Kresal, Carlee Wieser, Candice Harris, and Erin Grupp set the meet record of 1:49.51

The girls overcame some adversity by posting some of their fastest times of the season.  We had 6 girls go 27.8 or faster in the 200 free relays at the end of the meet, and some great surprises like Emma Terrazas posting a 32.0 in the 50 Butterfly to help win the Medley Relay.

People posting season bests at this meet, were:

Sarah Ochoa, Jackie Trotier, Devin Green, Erin Grupp, Carlee Wieser, Shelly Hanacek, Candice Harris, and Joanna McDowell.  

Tomorrow morning we hope to see more of the same at the Sandburg Invitational.

Weekend of Oct 3 & 4

Today is the Richards Bulldog Relays - The meet starts at 6:00 at Richards High School in Oak Lawn
The school is at 107th & Central in Oak Lawn.

The meet on Saturday is at Sandburg High School at 131st and LaGrange, in Orland Park.

Come out and cheer on the girls as they seek to repeat as Bulldog Relay champions on Friday, and come see the best competition of the season.

Monday - Back to GSU!!

Thank You and Looking Forward To a Better End

I know this season has seen it's challenges, and I have been as frustrated or more frustrated than anyone on this team.
I want to start by pointing out the irony in my first blog about the renovations at GSU. Although it might be ironic, I'm still having trouble laughing about how much adversity the girls have already been through.

Most importantly I want to thank the parents who have gone through some tough schedule changes and driving challenges this season. Also, for the girls that have gone through the same schedule on top of their class loads (now you see why I dropped my honors classes in high school - okay, bad example).

I am anticipating some of the greatest time drops our team has ever seen in the coming month(s). I know that the training has been an issue, not only for our varsity, but for the technique of our new swimmers. In the next month, we only have 2 dual meets and 1 invitational and that means by the time T.F. South sees us at the end of October, and the rest of our Sectional sees us in mid November, we will have a lot of surprises for them.

We have already accomplished a lot of things this season:
1st place at the Bremen Invite
6th place at the Fenwick F/S Invite
2nd place at the Riverside-Brookfield Invite
7th place at the Fenwick Varsity Invite

Our new swimmers are also posting times that are among the top 10 on the team in multiple events. This shouldn't have happened until the end of the season, and it gives me great hope of things to come.