England already making significant time drops

When I asked St. Charles North girls swimming coach Rob Rooney who had been having a nice start to the season - someone I haven't talked about much - the answer was nearly immediate: Jessica England.

I remembered England. As a sophomore, she was a state qualifier last year in the 500-yard freestyle and also a member of the North Stars 400 freestyle relay team. It turns out those two Friday swims were the start of something good for England, who is one of the team's early leaders this season.

"She kind of qualified out of the blue and won the sectional in the 500 freestyle," Rooney said. "For her that was a huge steppingstone. It motivated her to do things well in the spring and the summer. We're seeing some of the benefits of the her putting the time in."

Time - swimming is all about time. Even the average swimmers put in an inordinate amount of time in the water when they're not competing.

For good ones, that time turns into a decent high school season. For the above average athletes like England, all those endless summer laps turn into athletes ready to break out in their high school seasons.

And England looks set for such a breakout. At this point last year, she was swimming 5:26 in the 500 freestyle. She recently posted a 5:14 time, which is close to the IHSA qualifying standard of 5:13.93, which is the same as it was a year ago.

"The team is really great this year," England said. "We have a really great connection in and out of the water. We have a lot more freshmen and sophomores than we did last year and they're all really helping the team. We're getting along really well, and that's a good sign for us."

England knows the competition will be tough in the 500. Rosary's Kally Fayhee swam 4:57.63 to win the event last year and four of the top six in the event are back this year. The slowest time in finals was 5:09.

"I'm just hoping to get to state again and maybe get into the top 12," England said. "It would be great if all our relays qualified for state. Hopefully it wouldn't be just me getting to state - we should have a lot of people go to state this year. I know a lot of people will improve a lot."

St. Charles has a solid history in the 500 freestyle, an event in which 2006 grad Catherine Nosal was a four-time state medalist. In the water this year, England is hardly alone in helping to lead the North Stars. Fellow junior Angie Chokran is a definite force to be reckoned with as well.

"She's been my pace clock for the past year," England said of Chokran. "I see how hard she tries and it makes me want to work as hard as she does. She's pretty fast and she's a great person to try to keep up with."

The 500 is the longest individual swim in the high school swim meet. Although it dwarfs the 200 freestyle in distance, it is not exactly a marathon swim, and not as long as the 1,000-yard event club swimmers compete in and 1,650-yard event college teams swim. There is still a mental aspect to handling this distance event.

"I don't think it's a killer," Rooney said. "Anything over 100, it's a mental mind frame you have to get into. These kids who are 200 and 500 and 1000 swimmers, they are mid-distance to distance swimmers who love the challenge of a longer race. That's something (England) is getting better at."

In competition, Rooney said he wants to see fast times, but also something more. Every swim coach talks about the need to have "racers" in the lineup, swimmers who try to get ahead of the next competitor ahead of them, regardless of what their time is.

"Jessica is getting good at the 'what do I have to do this race to beat this person' mindset," Rooney said. "That's something she's developing. You've got to have competition in practice and we have that. The more these kids train with each other, the better they are going to be."

Not for the first time, the experience of swimming at the state meet is helping to spur on an athlete. Although England did not advance to Saturday's finals in either event, she was energized by the on-deck experiences last fall.

"I went as an alternate my freshman year," she said. "Going and experiencing it on-deck was great. Not just the swimming but being able to cheer on my teammates, it was really awesome."

The setting on-deck is never completely enjoyable. Between swimmers, coaches, officials and media members, the deck is a very crowded place.

"It is crowded," England admitted. "But you're sitting there with your teammates and your coach and you can feel the excitement and the tension, and it all makes it so much more enjoyable when people do well and you're right there able to enjoy it."

It's always fun to try to predict that a swimmer will break out in the final meets of the season, when the resting process known as tapering produces huge time drops. In England's case, the time is already dropping, and she hasn't begun the tapering process yet.

It's apparent that she has potential to not only make the state meet, but to score. Her focus is more on how the team does at the moment.

"When it gets close to sectionals and state, you can feel the excitement building within us," England said. "We all get nervous and excited and it's really great. We all come together as a team then and see what we can do.