Stay Connected with YourSeason
Girls swimming: Rosenberger sisters head to state for Lyons
Western Springs, 11/12/11-- Hinsdale Central swimmers Hannah Lillioja and Genna Heidkamp cheer teamate Jen Coady home in the 200 yd Medley Relay during the Lyons Township Girls Swimming Sectional Saturday November 12, 2011 at the south campus pool in Western Springs. | Scott Hardesty for Sun-Times Media
Updated: November 14, 2011 7:08PM
Lyons Township junior Kristine Rosenberger achieved her goal of returning to the state meet in the 50-yard freestyle. This year, she’ll be able to bring along her younger sister, Lauren, a sophomore, who qualified in the 500 free.
The two sisters from La Grange are among five LT swimmers to qualify for the state meet in six different events. Lyons also qualified all three of its relays, winning the 200 free and 400 free, at Saturday’s Lyons Sectional in Western Springs.
The preliminaries for the state meet at New Trier will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday and the finals will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Kristine Rosenberger nearly blew her chance to qualify in the 50 free, where she finished 28th in last year’s state meet. She owned the No. 2 seed, but wobbled as she was about to dive from starting block No. 4. The official starter asked the swimmers to come up off their diving position and began the process to re-start the race again. At the starting gun, Kristine started late, but finished first in 24.84. She was the sectional’s only swimmer to advance to State in the 50 free.
Kristine’s sectional time ranks 47th among state qualifiers.
“I’m really so excited for the next week going into the state meet,” Kristine said. “I’m also so excited for the whole team.”
Three events later, Kristine operated the lap-counting board for Lauren’s 500 free. Lauren (5:11.14) was the last of four state qualifiers in that event behind Hinsdale Central’s Abbey King (5:03.95) and Kristen Worthington (5:04.68) and LT’s Jennifer Weigand (5:09.82).
“In that last lap, I knew she would do it. I knew she got it,” Kristine said. “I’m so proud of her.”
Like many of their teammates, the Rosenberger sisters have posted their season goals on a sheet of paper that is taped to the wall inside the south campus pool.
Under team goals, Kristine typed: “Have spirit.”
Among her individuals goals, the sheet lists: “Break school record in 50 free, Kick hard off every wall, Powerful starts and Trust my taper, don’t freak out!”
Kristine listed her midseason 50 free goal as 24.4 and her tapered goal of 23.8. She fully tapered for the sectional, but came close to her No. 1 goal of breaking Jennifer Eck’s school record of 24.34 in the 50 free from 1985.
Lauren’s sheet listed her season-ending goal of 5:12.00 in the 500 free, which she broke Saturday.
The Lions’ other individual state qualifiers are Elly Vitek (100, 200 free), Weigand (100 fly, 500 free) and Louisa Hoffman (100 free). Hoffman won the sectional in 52.20 and Vitek won the 200 free (1:52.71).
Hoffman ranks fifth among state qualifiers in the 100 free and Vitek is seventh in the 200 free.
LT’s top-rated relay is the 200 free (1:37.46), which ranks sixth with Hoffman, Kristine Rosenberger, Weigand and Vitek.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment