We have the 2024 IHSA Girls Swimming State Championship! Area teams Neuqua Valley, Naperville Central, Waubonsie Valley, Metea Valley, Naperville North, and Benet will compete at FMC Natatorium among the state’s best. Rosary enters as last years IHSA State Champion. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Becky Rentz gives Rosary its first race win at the 2024 IHSA Girls Swimming State Meet
The first individual event of the day is the 200 freestyle. Lucy Rooney of Benet in lane two is in the red cap. She qualified sixth with a time of 1:50.27.
At the midpoint in the race, Rosary Senior Becky Rentz is ahead, with Avery Luedke of St Charles North behind. Rooney is still in the mix in fourth for the Redwings.
In the end, Rentz storms ahead of the pack to take first with a 1:45.73, two-tenths off the state record. Luedke comes in second and Alyssa Albertyn of O’Fallon is third. Rooney ends in seventh for Benet.
Next, we have the 50-yard freestyle. This sprint sees Sophia Labarre and Sofia Piater of Neuqua in heat two, the swimmers all make the turn and Labarre is neck and neck with Lilia Barber of Hinsdale Central. All the swimmers are close though and Barber touches first with a time of 23.28. The eight swimmers were separated by just .6 tenths of a second. LaBarre takes 2nd and 10th overall and Piater is good for 15th place in the state.
Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley divers finish inside the top 15
Heading over to diving, here is Metea Valley’s Bridget Anderson whose reverse 1-and-a-half somersault earns her 15th place in the state.
From Waubonsie, it’s Ella Buchnauer; Buchnauer performs an inward dive pike. The sophomore places ninth in the state with a score of 445.
Buchnauer’s teammate Lucia Caruso also performs an inward dive. Caruso places 8th with this dive, earning 447.55 points.
Naperville area swimmers finish inside the top 10 in multiple events
We go back to the swimming for the 100-yard butterfly, where Lauren Eschmeyer is Naperville Central’s highest-qualifying swimmer. On Friday, Eschmeyer qualified with a time of 56.33, earning her the seventh seed in the event.
The swimmers make their way down with Isabelle Beu of St Charles North in first with New Trier’s Zara Bolton behind. Beu wins by a second with a time of 53.22. Eschmeyer comes in seventh place with a time of 56.33 for Naperville Central. Waubonsie’s Bella Plude placed 15th and Natalie Sierzanowski placed 16th for Neuqua.
Our first relay action sees Neuqua compete with Rosary, New Trier, St Charles North, Lyons, Stevenson, Edwardsville, and Maine South. Neuqua’s fastest freestyle swimmer Sophia Labarre kicks things off for the Wildcats in lane two.
Carolina Piater finishes her leg for Neuqua with the Wildcats still close by the leaders. Crystal Yu takes over trailing Rosary’s Paige Kowal and St Charles North’s Hayden Kruse in the lanes over. It’s Kowal who is out front for the defending champions, looking to break the IHSA record they set the day before.
In the end, Sofia Piater brings Neuqua to fifth place as Rosary, New Trier, and St Charles North come first, second, and third. Rosary set an IHSA record of 1:31.69, besting their time from the day before.
In the 100 breaststroke, we see the Naperville North Huskie’s top qualifier Tasha Mantel in lane 2. Mantel gets off to a good start, neck and neck with Erika Ilkiu of Deerfield in lane three. Elizabeth Nawrockie of Rosary and Brooke Corrigan of Rockford Christian lead the qualifiers as they go into the first turn.
As the swimmers go into their last run, Nawrockie and Corrigan are tight to the finish line and end up 1-2. With times of 1:01.04 and 1:01.12 respectively. Mantel brings in seventh place in the state for the Huskies with a time of 1:03.60.
Wrapping up the IHSA Girls Swimming State Championship with the 400-yard free relay
Into the final two heats of the day, it’s the 400 yard freestyle relay. Neuqua’s team of Carolina and Sofia Piater, Crystal Yu, and Emily Wu try to cap off a successful day for the Wildcats. They are in lane 4 with a qualifying time of 3:29.74.
Midway through the race, they are behind Loyola Academy by a body length before Sofia Piater. Piater dives in chasing Loyola and Maine South.
On the turn, Piater starts to close the gap. She passes Maine South in lane three and is in a tight race down to the wire for ninth place in the state. Under the flags, they’re tied, and it goes right down to the wire, the swimmers look up to the time board, and Neuqua wins by eight-hundredths of a second with a 3:29:47. Neuqua ends up in eighth place at state, and their program’s best placing since their win in 2019.
No area teams were in the final heat of the 400 free, but Rosary, New Trier, and St Charles North competed heavily in hopes of winning the last race of the day. St Charles North’s relay team is the state record holder, but all Rosary has to do is place to secure their win at state. And you can see the three teams all at the head of the pack midway through the race.
Here come the leaders into the final stretch. St Charles North wins the race. However, Rosary does enough to win the 2024 IHSA Girls Swimming State Championship, their second title in two years!
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page!
