Girls Swimming: Alexa Szadorski, Molly Leubner lead deep Oswego Co-op team determined to make best of season

Alexa Szadorski and Molly Leubner both got creative in their six months away from competitive swimming.

Szadorski practiced in the family pool. Leubner discovered a love for running.

Now they're determined to make the most of an unusual season.

Szadorski, a senior and Indiana State recruit, and Leubner, a junior, are among the swimmers back from the Oswego Co-op swimming team that took third place at the state finals last November. It was the program's third state trophy in four years.

Oswego Co-op kicked off its season Tuesday with a meet at Rosary. Today is the home opener against West Aurora.

It's Szadorski's first competitions since February, her longest layoff since she started swimming at 9 years old.

"It felt like an adrenalin rush," Szadorski said. "We've been practicing, but it's a completely different feeling to be able to race girls you normally don't. It's very different this year, but I'm excited to be able to race again."

Oswego Co-op graduated the most decorated swimmer in program history, Grace Cooper, part of 16 state medals and six state championships, off last year's team. But there's still a ton of talent in the water, and depth.

The team has 40-plus girls, close to 35 of them year-round swimmers. Besides Szadorski and Leubner, junior Lauren Wille, junior Corinne Guist and senior Skylar Ruggles are among the group of girls back who competed at state last year.

"It' not just that we have a lot of girls – this group is fast," Oswego Co-op coach Deryl Leubner said. "We could swim our third swimmer against most teams and do pretty well. We have a great core, we have speed, we have depth, holy cow do we have depth."

It's a team that could easily make noise at state, but won't get that chance. The IHSA's modified postseason only allows for a single round of geographic regional competition.

During the regular season, Oswego Co-op and others are restricted to competing against teams in their conference or COVID-19 region. That leaves Leubner's team with just seven dual meets, and a conference meet.

"We are on the short end of the stick," coach Leubner said. "Obviously the national emergency is more important, but we can only swim against conference and teams in our COVID region, and our COVID region is a swimming desert. To be honest, I thought we were a state contending team. We are trying to make the best of the situation."

Szadorski, who swam in two relays, the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly at state last year – placing eighth in the 200 IM – made the best of her time away this spring.

For the first few months, until June, she wasn't even swimming much, but doing dry land workouts at home. She has an above-ground pool in her back ground, bought chords and straps to tie around her waist and did stationary swimming.

"It was very weird when I started doing that," Szadorski said. "It was the beginning of April, it was really cold but a good feeling to be back in the water."

She swam the 200 IM and butterfly against Rosary, and seemed up to speed.

"I feel really good right now," Szadorski said. "[On Tuesday] I went pretty close to what I go in a season, a little off but close to typical in-season time. It's a confidence-booster knowing that after such a long break that I can perform close to what I can."

Molly Leubner did team workouts in her time away from competitive swimming, and also put on her running shoes. She averaged 6-7 miles in frequent daily runs.

"It really helped me to build up my aerobic capacity, trying to keep my tempo up for longer periods of time," Leubner said. "Aside from that, it kept me on track and kept me focused."

Leubner had a breakout performance last fall in her second state meet. She captured her first individual state medal by finishing third in the 50 freestyle – just behind Cooper – and sixth in the 100.

"State meet last year was probably the most adrenaline I felt in my entire life," Leubner said. "My freshman year, I was starstruck there. The Illinois state meet is so huge and freshman year it blindsided me. Sophomore year i was ready to race and the fact that I was able to contribute to a third-place trophy was incredible."

This modified season hasn't changed anything for Leubner, except her schedule.

"I didn't reset my goals; I just reset my timeline," Leubner said. "I'm half a second off Olympic Trial time in the 50 free and that was 100% my goal for this winter. Now it's my goal for next summer. My goals are the same, I just moved everything back."

In the meantime, Oswego Co-op is focused on getting back to the team concept.

"I think this team is set up for success," Szadorski said. "We're just focused on becoming a really close team and getting to know people that we don't usually talk to."