Girls Swimming: Corinne Guist, Oswego Co-Op make it 13 straight conference titles

OSWEGO – Corinne Guist and the Oswego Co-Op girls swimming and diving team has definitely experienced a different kind of season this fall.

Big changes like fewer meets. And no relays, or spectators.

But one thing remains the same.

Guist had two of her team's six event victories, and Oswego Co-op won its 13th consecutive championship on Saturday at the Southwest Prairie Conference swimming and diving meet at Oswego East.

"The season has been a unique one," Guist said. "I'm really proud with the team and how far we've come. We've made a lot of changes, but it's going good. I was looking forward to the end of the season championships, but this is what we've got so far."

Guist won the meet's first race, the 200-yard freestyle, in 1:56.41, then later came back to win her best race, the 500 freestyle, in 5:09.81. Both were just off her seed times, but Guist felt just fine with the results.

"It was a goal of mine, to win both races," Guist said. "In the end I'm glad the team did what it did and went out and raced the way we did today."

Other Oswego Co-op event wins were turned by Abby Szadorski in the 200 individual medley (2:10.62), Alexa Szadorski in the 100 butterfly (58.19), Amelia Soriaga in the diving competition (387.70 points) and Lauren Wille in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.08).

Both Szadorskis and Wille also had second-place finishes, Alexa Szadorski second in the 200 IM in 2:12.88.

Wille started off her day by taking second in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.51.

She admitted that it's definitley "kind of a bummer" not having her teammates on the deck cheering her on and in relays.

"It's a little bit harder," Wille said. "You have to find that internal fire to swim faster, because usually I have them out there with me."

Abby Szadorski later took second to Wille in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.21.

"I did pretty good – really looking forward to next weekend with sectionals, though," Szadorski said. "I feel like I have more energy for my individual races, I can focus more on those, but I still miss those relay races. They're really fun to do."

Oswego Co-op's Mackenzie Lipnick was second in the 500 freestyle in 5:11.31 and Skylar Ruggles was second in the 100 backstroke in 57.98.

With the IHSA limiting the swimming postseason to sectionals, Oswego Co-op's swimmers won't get the chance to return to state where they took third last year.

But they are looking forward to next weekend's sectional meet at Metea Valley.

"We're really excited. The times today were very very good," Wille said. "I'm looking forward to being partially tapered for next wekend. The times today were definitely very close to what we're hoping for."

"Coach said for a lot of teams sectionals is their big meet of the season," Guist said. "That's how we're treating it."