Harlem sweeps all medal events while swamping Jefferson, 169-30

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

Harlem’s girls swimming and diving team wrapped up the abbreviated, regular season Oct. 20 by handily defeating Rockford Jefferson, 169-30, at home.

The Lady Huskies finished 5-3 in the NIC-10 and in sole possession of fourth place. The 169 points they scored against Jefferson were a new conference record.

Meanwhile, the girls’ tennis season came to an end Oct. 16 with the state tournament series sectional at Harlem, won by Auburn with 26 points. Hononegah and Rockford Guilford tied for second with 10 points each. Harlem was seventh.

Winning matches for the Lady Huskies were senior Haley Bibby in No. 1 singles and junior Haley Massari in No. 2 singles.

Other members of this year’s tennis team were seniors Kayley Aurand, Lily Bennett, Aurora Drevs, Oriana Gjini, Taylor Goodwin, Delaney Johnson, Alexandra Riley and Madison Rush; junior Brooke Decho; sophomores Emilia Garcia, Abby Saltow, Shaeann Savalick, Kelly Schemel, Olivia Van Hise and Molly Williams; and freshmen Cassandra Claeyssen, Maya Hargraves and Whitney Schlaht.

Swimming team

For Harlem’s swimming and diving team, Oct. 20 was the final home appearance for six seniors and each of them put some points on the scoreboard against the Lady J-Hawks. Those seniors were Trinity Eissens, Taylor Hargraves, Arianna Kerchmar, Haylee McGuire, Piper Richardson and Laura Schuman.

In the one-sided win, Harlem won each of the 39 medal events.

Freshman Zoe Shields led the rout to cap her highly successful first year of swimming for Harlem. She came away with four gold medals, winning the 50-yard freestyle race with a time of 26.91 seconds; the 500-yard freestyle, in 5:53.86; the 50-yard backstroke in 32.68 seconds; and the 100-yard breaststroke, timed at 1:19.56.

The freshman trio of Madilyn Rich, Jada Seerup and Olivia Hall finished 1-2-3 in diving, totaling 132.05, 112.40 and 107.10 points, respectively. Each completed six dives during her turn off the board.

Hargraves won three events and finished third in a fourth. The gold medals were for winning the 100-yard butterfly, clocked at 1:10.47; the 100 individual medley (IM), at 1:13.73; and the 200 IM, in 2:38.05. She took third in the 100-yard backstroke, timed at 1:20.40, which brought in a bronze medal.

The list of senior standouts continued with Schuman winning one event and taking second in three others. Her gold medal came in the 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 1:05.65. She won silver in the 100-yard backstroke, in 1:20.17; the 100-yard butterfly, in 1:16.88; and the 200-yard IM, in 2:44.24.

McGuire won gold once, silver twice and bronze once. She took gold by winning the 200-yard freestyle, timed in 2:19.45; silver in the 500-yard freestyle, at 6:23.17, and the 50-yard breaststroke, in 44.55 seconds; and bronze in the 50-yard butterfly, clocked at 36.24 seconds.

Kerchmar, also went gold once, silver twice and bronze once. She won the the 50-yard breastroke in 37.79 seconds; placed second in the 200-yard freestyle, in 2:22.15, and the 100-yard breaststroke, in 1:22.60; and third in the 500-yard freestyle, at 6:28.16.

Eissens won the 50-yard butterfly, in 34.55 seconds; and wound up third in the 100-yard freestyle, clocked at 1:11.01, the 100-yard butterfly, in 1:24.79; and the 200-yard IM, in 2:55.95.

Junior Emma Rich had a great day, winning once and taking silver twice. Her gold medal came in the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 1:18.77. Her silver medals were recorded in the 50-yard freestyle, in 29.59 seconds, and the 50-yard backstroke, in 35.34 seconds.

One of two sophomores on the varsity, Julie Edwards, finished second twice and third twice. Her silver medal efforts came in the 100-yard freestyle, clocked at 1:08.08, and in the 100-yard IM, in 1:18.38. She won bronze in the 200-yard freestyle, in 1:31.80, and the 50-yard butterfly, at 38.58 seconds.

Junior Allison McDonald won three medals, all bronze, for third-place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle, with a time of 31.73 seconds; the 50-yard backstroke, in 36.28 seconds; and the 100-yard IM, at 1:20.65.

Piper Richardson, a senior, took silver in the 50-yard breaststroke, clocked at 40.57 seconds, and bronze in the 100-yard breaststroke, in 1:27.82.