Two Area Youth Swimmers Make Nationals

Dedication, discipline and determination are paying off for two members of the Joliet Y Jets Swim Team.

Sophia Galounis and Savannah Rubocki, both from Joliet, have qualified for the National YMCA Long Course Swimming Championships, which are takling place now at the Georgia Institute of Technology Aquatics Center in Atlanta.

The YMCA National meet involves over 1,200 participants. This will be the first summer the meet will be held at Georgia Tech.

Galounis, who will be a senior at Mt. Assisi Academy in Lemont, qualified in the 100-meter backstroke and 50-meter backstroke. Rubocki, who will be a freshman at Joliet Catholic Academy, qualified in the 200-meter freestyle.

Both girls qualified this past weekend at the Illinois Swimming Senior Championships. This is their first national meet experience.

“The girls and their teammates have put in great effort this summer and have made a lot of sacrifices to see these improvements,” said Head Coach Dave Hedden.

Besides practicing twice a day throughout the summer, each week the kids wake up at the crack of dawn on Wednesdays and Fridays to take a YMCA bus out to Ottawa in order to practice in a 50-meter pool.

“That’s been the regimen each summer ever since Inwood closed down their 50-meter pool, but the kids do a lot of team bonding on the bus rides,” Hedden said. “They’ve practically lived on that bus this summer, as we’ve taken the bus to several meets, done a combined practice with another team and taken a trip up to Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan for a full day of training on the dunes.”

Those types of trips are added in to break up what can be a grinding schedule for the advanced swimmers on the team.

It all pays off when goals, such as making YMCA Nationals, are met, especially when it has been years in the making.

Rubocki has been swimming competitively since she was 5, and comes from a family of swimmers. Her brother, Alex, swims with the Jets, and her father and her uncle, Jeff and John Rubocki, were nationally ranked swimmers on the Jets in the 1980s.

Galounis also started young, as an 8-year-old, and has her family hooked on the sport.

“It was a great pleasure to see Sophia and Savannah make their cuts,” Coach Hedden said. “Rewards for hard work are rarely immediate, but that’s what builds the type of character that will allow these kids to conquer any challenge they come across.”

The girls’ teammates and coaches were able to give them a rousing sendoff this week.

You can follow their results and find complete information about the team at www.jetsyswimteam.org.

The Joliet Y Jets Swim Team program focuses on character development and the shares the four core values that the YMCA espouses — caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

The Jets will hold their Fall Swim Clinic the week of September 12. The clinic will be held at both the Galowich and Smith Family YMCAs and is open to all swimmers ages 6 to 18 wishing to try out for the team.