Lenard 1st McHenry swimmer in 9 years to make state

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VERNON HILLS – McHenry’s Kristen Lenard looked to her coaches after she finished the 500-yard freestyle, but it wasn’t until she turned to see the scoreboard that she knew she had done it.

Lenard finished eighth in the 500 at the Vernon Hills girls swimming sectional, but qualified for the IHSA State Finals with a time of 5:13.53. She is the first McHenry girls swimmer to make it to state in nine years.

Lenard said she couldn’t read the reactions of McHenry coach Mike Shanahan and assistant Rick Schaefer, and thought she had failed to qualify.

“I looked at Rick on the side of the pool and he wasn’t going nuts,” Lenard said. “I turned and looked at the clock and screamed.”

Lenard, a sophomore, said she still was trying to grasp the magnitude of her accomplishment.

“I don’t even think it’s hit me yet,” she said. “After it sets in more I’m going to be more excited.”

With the seventh-fastest seed time, Lenard swam in the fourth of five heats and benefited from being challenged by Stevenson’s Michelle Hannon who edged out Lenard by less than a second.

“It definitely made me go faster,” Lenard said. “Even though [Hannon] got me at the end I kept up and swam fast.”

Shanahan said Lenard’s biggest break was not making it into the last heat. That allowed her to swim in clear water where she did not have to deal with the wake and turbulence of other swimmers.

“It was a godsend not to make the last heat,” Shanahan said.  

As the race progressed, Shanahan said that he didn’t think his swimmer was going to be fast enough. Lenard’s tenacity was the difference, he said.

“She seems to rise to the occasion,” Shanahan said. “She really hung in there at the end.”

Woodstock senior Becca Ortmann missed qualifying in the 50 freestyle by nine-hundredths of a second. She missed the cut in the 100 freestyle by four-tenths of a second.

Despite not qualifying, Ortmann swam a personal-best time in the 50 of 24.93.

“It was as close as you could get,” Woodstock coach Ian Shanahan said.

Also for the Warriors, Courtney Matthys finished sixth in both the 200 individual medley (2:15.91) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.48).

Cary-Grove was led by Lauren Curtis who finished ninth in the 100 freestyle (56.37) and Courtney Mega, who was ninth in the 100 backstroke (1:03.83). Grayslake Central’s Marissa Engel qualified for state in the backstroke (1:00.21), finishing third.

Lake Forest won the sectional team championship with 238 points. McHenry was seventh with 74, Woodstock ninth with 44, and Cary-Grove finished 11th with 19 points.

St. Charles East Sectional: Kristin Horney finished fifth in the 50 freestyle (25.47) to lead Jacobs to an eighth-place team finish with 50 points. Also for the Golden Eagles, Lindsey Pankau was seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.70), and tied for ninth in the 200 IM (2:24.78) with Crystal Lake Central’s Claire Walker.

Maggie Gomberg led the Tigers, taking fifth in the breaststroke (1:09.88). Central finished ninth as a team with 44 points.

Colleen Champa was 10th in the 100 butterfly (1:01.85) to pace Dundee-Crown to an 11th-place finish.

Host St. Charles East won the sectional championship with 273 points.