Rosary not 'psych-ed' as favorites

Every year, the IHSA prints the list of state swimming qualifiers, and the list is organized with the fastest swimmers first.

And this is called the state meet psych sheet. It is even possible to take this list and score the state meet, coming up with a mythical pre-meet champion.

And of course, while the psych sheet is fun to look at and interesting in theory, it is also mostly meaningless -- though the urge to check them out is often insatiable.

"I was talking to a friend who'd coached for many years," St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney said. "He told me it took him 20 years to stop looking at the psych sheet. I haven't been able to do that yet."

Tonight's preliminaries at New Trier establish who swims for the championship heat and the consolation heat in Saturday's finals. Points are only kept on Saturday, which is a long way from the psych sheet.

But as many people will look at, and score the psych sheet, this year's pre-meet champion hails from Aurora -- The Rosary Beads.

Beads coach Bill Schalz is the first to discount the value of the sheet, which has his team a 157-119 winner over Stevenson with host New Trier, Hinsdale Central, Naperville Central and Barrington also in the trophy hunt.

"Stevenson is seeded third in the medley relay," Schalz said. "Does anybody think, with all the freestylers they have, that they can come in and be seeded so low in that, or the other, relays? (Stevenson senior) Katie Shumway is seeded 13th in the 200 free. My God, this girl is going to go top six. You look at some of those things out there, and the sectional psych sheet doesn't mean a lot."

The best example for this came last year. Barrington entered the meet 147-121 ahead of Rosary -- yet when the actual points were finally scored, the Beads finished ahead of the Fillies 163-123 and had their first state title.

If there is one area in which the psych sheet can be useful, it is in scoring potential. Teams may shift upward and downward, but the trophy winners always do come from the top teams on the psych sheet.

But you can't hand out state trophies based on that sheet.

"Barrington came in last year seeded first in all three relays," Schalz said. "We won the medley and the 400 free relay and were fifth in the 200 free relay and won the meet."

The difference this year is that the Beads are the favorites. While they have often been tipped to win the state title, they enter today's prelims as the defending champions, this year's Neuqua Valley Sectional titlists and the team tipped to win the championship.

"For us, the goal is to get to 170 points as a team," Schalz said. "If we can get there, I don't know if other teams can get to that range. If we can win the relays -- if we can even sweep the relays -- then that means we are having a good day individually and we'll probably be doing well with the swimmers, and that means we will do well as a team."

Rosary has the fastest 200-yard medley relay entering prelims, and is fastest in the 400 freestyle relay. The 200 freestyle relay is seeded second. Relay points, which are double that of individual race points, are often the deciding factor in state meets.

"I thought we swam well at the sectional, but I also thought we were in good shape going in," Schalz said. "Our medley and 400 free relay have been the fastest in the state all year. We've been racing well. But we held back on our relay exchanges and I was surprised how fast we swam."

When a team swims as quickly as Rosary did at the sectional meet, the question often becomes whether or not the team swam too fast. Teams try to time the resting process known as tapering for the state meet, a process that involves a number of rituals, including donning Fastskin suits, aerodynamically designed to help a swimmer move at her fastest through the water.

So have the Beads blown their taper?

"We didn't have a single Fastskin on all day," Schalz said.

Schalz knows, however, that the psych sheet won't help his team win the state title.

"Kally (Fayhee) is seeded first in the 500 free with a 5:03," Schalz said. "The last three years, it's taken 5:01 or better to get into the top six. There are several girls who can go 5:00 or 4:59 -- so she knows she will have to push things."

St. Charles North has a large number of qualifiers, and a lot of them are heading to state meet competition for the first time.

"Right now, we're being relaxed and having fun," Rooney said. "We're going to be relaxed and have a good time and do the best we can. That's the plan."

The North Stars have some scoring potential of their own, especially from sophomore Angie Chokran, the only fully-untapered swimmer on the team at last week's St. Charles East sectional.

Chokran is seeded second in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 individual medley.

"We'll see what happens," Rooney said. "They've trained long and hard to get to this point. For the first time, it's mental. I know these kids are mentally tough because of everything they've done throughout the season."

Overall, the North Stars have 10 athletes competing this weekend, a massive contingent for the school.

"If you had told me at the start of the season that we'd have 10 kids taking a dip in the pool at New Trier at the end of the year, I would have been ecstatic," Rooney said. "They really stood up at the sectional and did a good job and gave themselves a chance to swim at least one more time -- and possibly twice more -- this season."

St. Charles East emerged from its sectional with two relays and three individual entries in the state meet.

"Selfishly, we would have liked to have gotten more," St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel said. "We had some good swims and the cuts were fast. You always want to go into the state meet with a shot at the top five or the top three."

The Saints individual star entering the meet is senior Caitlin Dauw, who is seeded fourth in the 200 freestyle and second in the 100 butterfly.

Saints sophomore Kayla Scott qualified in the 100 breaststroke and is on the psych sheet as a potential scorer in her first state meet experience.

"(Scott) swam really well and came through the second half of her race better than anyone in her heat," Cabel said. "There is potential for her to come down a bit more."

The Saints relay allows additional swimmers a chance to swim, Cabel said.

"Our relays are in position to score," Cabel said. "I think it's important that they all have a little left in the tank for the state meet. We (tapered) them down, but not all the way for the sectional. You still want them to be able to race the next weekend."

West Aurora has a pair of qualifiers. Senior diver Liz Chollet concludes her career with a trip to this afternoon's diving prelims. Sophomore Jackie Iglesias is a swimming qualifier in the 100 backstroke.