Saints Swim to Victory Over North Stars

Several St. Charles North girls swimming coaches donned T-shirts Thursday evening with the words "One Town. Two Teams. One Pool." printed on the back.

But, for a while that night, it also looked like there would be "No Meet" due to the fact that there were no officials on hand.

But after a 45‑minute delay, the much-anticipated cross-town showdown between St. Charles East and St. Charles North took place as scheduled at St. Charles North.

St. Charles East, the host team despite the fact that it will be without the use of its home pool—the Norris Aquatic Center—due to a renovation project, made the most of their new home away from home and emerged with a 114‑72 victory in Upstate Eight Conference dual meet action.

The win over the North Stars was a long time coming, according to the Saints' Nicole Chapko, who won the 200‑yard IM (2:09.41) and 100 breaststroke (1:07.84), and swam a leg on the victorious 200 medley relay team (1:51.03).

"It's the first time that we've beaten (St. Charles) North (in a dual meet) since the schools split (10 years ago)," Chapko said. "It's a pretty great accomplishment to finally beat them."

The victory may have been set up last November when the Saints captured their first sectional title since 2001.

"Since we beat them (the North Stars) in the sectional, we knew we could do it and it pumped us all up," Chapko added.

The Saints won nine of the 12 events, including the first four, and had two of the top three finishers in ten events. Stephanie Garvin, Mary Snyder and Hannah Saunders led a 1‑2‑3 St. Charles East sweep in the 100 free.

"Depth, that's our strength," said Saints coach Joe Cabel. "We're pretty deep down to 20 people. That's something we haven't had in quite a while."

Emma Smith won two individual events (200 free, 100 fly) and was a part of two other first‑place relays for the Saints, while teammate Garvin was a double‑event victor (50 free, 100 free).

St. Charles North received title‑winning efforts from Jennifer Clay (500 free), Lauren Reynolds (100 back) and Merideth Beird (diving).

"East has a top‑three team, that I can see," said North Stars coach Rob Rooney, whose squad lost several senior leaders to graduation. "We'll be good at the end. We've got to figure out how to put a team back together.

"When you lose a lot of leadership‑not just one star‑but a lot of the supporting cast, I've learned that it's hard for the group who follows that."