The crosstown rivals are back at it again, as the Naperville North girls swimming team travels to Naperville Central in a DVC matchup. Both teams are looking to build up some confidence, as we are about halfway through the season. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Huskies open with an early lead
The match kicks off with the 200-yard medley relay as two teams from both schools compete for victory. It would go to the Redhawks as the lane 5 team of Mikayla Belisario, Lauren Eschmeyer, Macy Fults, and Yinung Shu finish with a time of 1:54.74.
Now over to the 200-yard IM, where the swimmers get off to a great start. Coming to the finish, Huskie, Mallika Putakham would hold off the challenge of Belisario and Natalie Vogel to take the victory with a time of 2:18.54.
The Huskies would add on in the 50-yard freestyle, in what would be a close finish between all of the competitors. Here we see Lauren Malko push herself out front to take another race win for the Huskies.
Naperville Central fighting back
We’ll now head to the 100-yard butterfly, as the Redhawks look to get back in the win column. Eschmeyer in the end gets her first individual win of the night with a time of 1:02.57.
The Huskies wouldn’t make things much easier for the Redhawks in the 100-yard Freestyle event, as Tasha Mantel leads a 1-2 finish for the Huskies to extend their lead in the match.
The Redhawks would continue to hang around. In the 100-yard IM, it was Lily Jia and Ellen Hoover giving Central a 1-2 victory, with Jia finishing with a time of 1:05.79.
Naperville North girls swimming holds off the Redhawks
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, it ends up coming down to lane 4 for the Huskies and lane 5 for the Redhawks. Coming to the end it was the Huskie team of Abby Pobozny, Mantel, Malko, and Chloe Chen securing the win.
Central would fight back in the 100-yard backstroke race, as Belisario and Hsu go down to the wire, but in the end, it was Hsu who would prevail for the individual win.
North would try to lock things up in the 100 Breaststroke event as Mantel would give herself and the Huskies another individual win with a time of 1:08.06.
Despite the Mantel win, North would only be up by 2 going into the last race of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay. It starts off at first, a close race, but the lone Naperville North team would get the job done over the two Redhawk teams to give the Huskies a 105-97 win over Naperville Central.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!