Six records fall at FVC swim meet

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Six meet records were set, including every relay event, at the Fox Valley Conference Girls Swimming Championships Saturday at Woodstock North.

Before Saturday, the previous time a meet record was broken was in 2003.

Jacobs started the record-breaking day in the first event with a 1:53.74 in the 200-yard medley relay. That beat the oldest swimming record in the books, set by Crystal Lake Central in 1991.

Swimming for the Golden Eagles were Jenny Ogaban (backstroke), Erin Jameson (breaststroke), Tatiana Reinbrecht (butterfly) and Nicole Sanchez (freestyle).

Crystal Lake Central had record-setting performances in both freestyle relays by Nikayla Dahl, Jess Schwendau, Courtney Lefevre and Marisa Barton. The Tigers won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:41.06, topping a Woodstock team from 2001. Central swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:42.54 to break the record set by Cary-Grove in 2003.

Of even greater significance, the Tigers were only 1.27 seconds off the IHSA state qualifying standard in the 200 freestyle relay. The Central team, which co-ops with Prairie Ridge and Crystal Lake South, is looking to be the first area relay team to qualify for state since 2005.

Tigers coach Lindsay Mernitz said her swimmers did not taper for the conference meet and is optimistic that some rest, racing swimsuits and competition at the St. Charles East Sectional on Saturday will be enough to punch their ticket to state.

“We definitely have a shot,” Mernitz said. “We’re going to be resting this week. [Saturday] is the real test.”

In the individual events, Barton set a record and swam a state qualifying time in the 100 freestyle (53.83). Barton broke a 1992 record set by McHenry’s Brianne Fowles. Of the five records not broken Saturday, Fowles holds three of them.

Claire Haggerty and Marissa Engel, swimming as individuals for Grayslake Central, which does not have a team, set the other two individual records. Haggerty swam a 2:09.74 in the 200 individual medley to top Fowles’ time from 1993 and go under the state time by nearly two seconds.

Engel was the only swimmer to go under a minute in the 100 backstroke (58.80) to beat a Fowles record from 1995.

Champa on course: If history has any bearing, Dundee-Crown’s Colleen Champa is looking good for the upcoming sectional and state meets.

Last year Champa swam the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.44 at conference before qualifying for state with a 1:06.96 a week later at sectionals. She went on to finish eighth at state in the breaststroke. She also qualified in the IM, taking 4.5 seconds off her FVC time of 2:12.37 to go well under the state standard.

This year at conference, Champa swam a 1:09.89 in the breaststroke and a 2:12.98 in the IM.

Upcoming meets: Sectional meets at Vernon Hills (Cary-Grove, McHenry), Barrington (Dundee-Crown, Woodstock), St. Charles East (Crystal Lake Central, Huntley, Jacobs) and Byron (Marengo) 1 p.m. Saturday. IHSA State Finals at New Trier 3:30 p.m. Nov. 18 and 1 p.m. Nov. 19.