Freestyle relay win turns meet to Huskies

Updated: October 29, 2011 9:20PM

When Naperville North’s Jen Law was swimming the third leg of Saturday’s final event, the 400 freestyle relay, all she could think about was her sister Michelle, who was on the deck ready to take the anchor leg.

“I knew that the meet and the conference championship were riding on this race,” said Jen. “And I wanted to give her as big a lead as I could.”

As it turned out, younger sister Michelle took over with a slight lead and held it to give the Huskies the win with a time of 3:37.66 to Naperville Central’s 3:38.91. Devin Jacobs and Adrienne Jamieson swam the first two legs of the race for Naperville North.

The victory gave the Huskies their second straight DuPage Valley Conference championship.

“I just gave it 100 percent and hoped I would touch the wall first,” said Michelle Law. “I’m really pumped for sectionals and state now.”

“In that last race our girls really showed what they were made of,” said Naperville North coach Kristy Holben. “They really attacked it. Every one of the girls on that relay knew what she needed to do.”

The archrival Naperville teams were two points apart going into that final race. The winner of the 400 freestyle relay was going to be the DVC titlist and it was the Huskies who prevailed.

“There was a lot of pressure going into that race,” said Jen Law, who also won the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. “I’ve never been nervous going into a conference event before. But Michelle did really great. I’m proud of her. Our teams are the best of rivals because of the way we compete against each other. North really came in with the attitude that we wanted to win. ”

The two teams faced each other four times this year and each came away with two victories.

The Huskies, who scored 304.5 points to second-place Naperville Central’s 296, also took the top prize in the 200 medley relay with a team that consisted of the Law sisters, Rachel Prorok and Becca Bogle.

Bogle was the winner of the 50 freestyle, Jacobs, a freshman, took home the gold in the 200 freestyle and Prorok won the 100 breaststroke.

Naperville Central’s Maria Villa, Erin Stevens, Lauren Gunn and Emily Sejna teamed up to win the 200 freestyle relay.

Other Redhawks who won were: Molly Schatz in the diving, Julia Roller in the 500 freestyle and Emily Sejna in the 100 freestyle. The only race that did not go to one of the Napervilles was the 100 backstroke, which was won by West Chicago’s Maya Skorupski in a conference-record 58.25.

“This meet is what competitive sport is all about,” said Naperville Central coach Sue Welker. “All the teams here had a great day.”

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