No clear favorite among FVC girls swimming teams

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The girls swimming season starts this week, and there are few sure things both from a team and an individual perspective.

There is no clear favorite among the six Fox Valley Conference schools, and although there are many state qualifying hopefuls, Kristin Horney from Jacobs is the area’s only returning swimmer to make it to state last year.

Here are three story lines that should prove interesting in 2009:

New rules, old times

The recent ban of technical swimsuits by the IHSA resulted in state qualifying times remaining static from the 2008 season. How this will affect the number of state qualifiers remains to be seen.

Also at issue, much like Major League Baseball’s home run records, is how to handle the tech suit-enabled records set last year.

McHenry coach Mike Shanahan suggested the possibility of putting an asterisk by those records but said there are no easy answers.

“I’m befuddled,” Shanahan said. “I’m glad to see them do away with the swimsuit thing, but we kind of let the cat out of the bag.”

Area coaches agree with the swimsuit ruling. Dundee-Crown’s Kendra Everett said it puts the emphasis on where is should be: the swimming.

“I am glad that they made that rule change,” Everett said. “I think it makes it more fair all around. It’s more legit to me.”

Pool time

Only McHenry and Woodstock have in-school pools among local teams, and Woodstock takes over as the school with the premier facility. Woodstock will co-op with Woodstock North this year and will get its first full season to utilize North’s new eight-lane pool.

Woodstock coach Ian Shanahan said he hopes the new facility has a positive impact on his program and might be partly responsible for a large turnout for this year’s team. He said the difference is most noticeable in practice, where spreading 30 girls across eight lanes is a lot more productive than at the four-lane pool at Woodstock.

Woodstock also will take over hosting duties for the FVC Meet on Nov. 7 and will host an invitational Sept. 19.

New Jacobs coach Tracy Bolla, like several other area teams, must schedule practices at area pools, often late at night. Bolla said she is used to it after coaching at Hersey, which also didn’t have a pool.

“Our practice times are a little challenging, but we’re playing the hand we are dealt,” Bolla said.

State qualifying

Horney qualified for state last year in the 50-yard freestyle and was the area’s only non-senior to make the state cut. She will be joined this year by several local swimmers, from freshmen to seniors, who hope to eclipse the state-qualifying standards.

One of those is Cary-Grove junior Courtney Mega, who will try to qualify in the backstroke and individual medley. New C-G coach Caitlin Sullivan said Mega has a legitimate shot at state.

“This could be a good year for her,” Sullivan said. “She looks super strong in the water. She’s got a lot of power.”