Girls Swimming: Oswego Co-Op has plenty to shout about with second place at sectional meet

AURORA – Molly Leubner and the Oswego Co-Op swim team made their own noise Saturday.

With no spectators allowed at the Metea Valley Sectional because of COVID-19 protocols, the biggest challenge was a lack of adrenalin.

Leubner said that even walking on the deck, it was stone silent – so the girls brought their own energy while huddled in the school gymnasium waiting their turn to swim.

"We were in the gym screaming our heads off watching the live stream of the meet," Leubner said. "We certainly annoyed the teams around us. By the end of the meet were all watching the teams, socially distanced. It was a fun meet."

The girls had plenty to shout about.

Oswego Co-Op had 11 top six finishes in swimming events, and took second place to three-time defending state champion Neuqua Valley in the team standings.

With no state meet, it was about as good a finish to a season as the Oswego girls could have asked for.

"I think we did an incredible job," said Oswego Co-Op junior Lauren Wille, second in the 200-yard freestyle and third in the 100 breaststroke. "Our goal of course is to win it, but at the end of the day the goal is to swim your best times. That is what we did."

Wille swam state-qualifying times in the first race of the day, the 200 freestyle (1:49.74) and the last, the 100 breaststroke (1:03.97), the latter a tenth of a second off the school record.

"The 200 free, I did better than what I expected, I did drop time which was absolutely amazing. The first 100 I was a little stressed out, neck and neck with my competitors, that brought another level of competitiveness," Wille said. "I had about two and a half hours until my next event, and I think the break helped me mentally. I had so much time to recover and said let's just go for it. That school record [in the 100 breaststroke], I've been chasing that for years. I'm right there. I guess I'll just have to do it next year."

Corinne Guist took fifth in the 200 freestyle in 1:54.75 and later came back to go 5:02.91 for third in the 500 freestyle, both of which would have been state-qualifying times.

"I was a little upset at the beginning with the 200 but I had to put that behind me and go into the 500 and push myself the best I could," Guist said. "The 500 was better. You have to do what you have to do."

Guist agreed with her teammates that the meets was certainly a different atmosphere than typical sectionals.

"Usually at sectionals, you are on the blocks and you can hear a pin drop and as soon as you dive in everybody gets go loud. You don't realize how much that affects you, but it does," Guist said. "We really had to be self-motivated, get ourselves pumped up."

Leubner was fourth in the 50 freestyle in 23.70 seconds and sixth in the 100 freestyle in 52.44, both state-qualifying times.

"They were good. I was not tapered for this meet, so I didn't expect the best times," Leubner said. "I was just happy to watch my teammates go out there and swim their best times. To see them swim as well as they did, I'm so proud of them."

Neuqua Valley was led by McKenna Stone, who set pool records in winning the 200 individual medley (2:00.75), 100 butterfly (53.04), 50 freestyle (22.70) and 100 breaststroke (1:01.77).

Other Oswego Co-Op top six finishes were turned in by Alexa Szadorski in the 200 IM (sixth, 2:07.98) and the 100 butterfly (fifth, 56.83), Mackenzie Lipnick in the 500 free (fourth, 5:04.99), Skylar Ruggles in the 100 backstroke (fourth, 56.39) and Carson White in the 100 backstroke (sixth).

Leubner was pleased with how her team handled a season like no other with limited meets and other COVID-19 protocols.

"We went into it not knowing what to expect; I don't think anybody expected us to swim as fast as we did, but we did," Leubner said. "We were really focused on lifting each other up, making sure we positive throughout the whole season which is hard to do when there's no end in sight [with the pandemic]. The biggest thing we got out of it is a closer team dynamic, more than anything we could have had in training."