Gojakovic Beats State Cuts Twice At CSL South Meet

Vanya Gojakovic recorded two swims under the Illinois High School Association state cuts Saturday and sparked the Evanston girls swim team to a 2nd place finish at the Central Suburban League South division meet held at Glenbrook South.

Gojakovic, a sophomore, earned runnerup finishes in both the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 5.88 seconds) and 100 backstroke (57.41) as Evanston piled up 276 points in the team standings, behind only champion New Trier’s 500.

The meet format counts 3 individuals per race per school, and 2 relays per school.

Gojakovic chopped four full seconds off her previous best IM time and was a full five seconds under the IHSA standard, too. In the backstroke, she dropped her best time from 59.32 to 57.41 in an event where the state cut is listed at 58.56.

The sophomore standout also combined with Nina Gatchell, Cameron Corbett and Annika Wartowski to place 3rd in the 200 medley relay, in a season best (and under the state cut) 1:47.65, and her sizzling leadoff leg of 53.60 fueled a third place effort by the Wildkits in the 400 freestyle relay, in 3:38.11.

Gatchell, a freshman, lowered her best time in the 100 breaststroke almost three full seconds, down to a 1:06.76 on her way to a fourth place finish in that event. The IHSA qualifying standard in the breaststroke is 1:07.17.

Also scoring top six individual finishes for ETHS were Tacy Jamison, 4th in the 50 freestyle in 25.22; Merrill Short, 4th in the 500 freestyle in 5:17.60; Susannah Keller, 5th in the 500 freestyle in 5:19.14; Georgia Stoolmaker, 5th in the 100 freestyle in 54.38; Wartowski, 6th in the 100 freestyle in 55.26 and 6th in the 50 freestyle in 25.24; Corbett, 6th in the 100 butterfly in 59.08; Gatchell, 6th in the 200 IM in 2:15.46; and Malia Schoonyoung, 6th in the 500 freestyle in 5:26.93.

The Wildkit girls will compete in the Highland Park Sectional meet on November 9th.