Favia’s effort carries Benet

Updated: September 15, 2011 9:24PM

It was officially a double-dual swimming and diving meet that was held at Naperville Central on Thursday.

But, it could just as easily have been dubbed “Cristina Favia Day.”

The Benet senior, who led her team to victory finished first in two individual events, swam on two winning relay teams and she was asked to this Saturday’s Benet Homecoming Dance in a very public way.

It was Benet football captain Trevor Krajewski who had perfect timing by asking the question after Favia’s winning 500 freestyle race, as the scoreboard flashed the sign “Cristina, Homecoming? Trevor.”

When she climbed out of the pool Favia accepted the invitation and the beautiful bouquet of flowers that the resourceful defensive end had purchased for the occasion.

Wasn’t Krajewski taking a chance by making his proposal so public?

“No,” said Favia. “I knew he was going to ask me. I just didn’t know how he was going to do it. It was a nice little surprise.”

“It was just a fun thing to do,” said Krajewski.

In the main swimming and diving event, Benet edged Naperville Central 90 to 85, while both teams defeated West Aurora in head-to-head scoring.

Favia, along with several of her Benet teammates are on a mission to score at state this year after falling just short of the top twelve last year.

She was 14th in the 500, while Tori Bertschy was 13th in the 100 butterfly and the 400 free relay also finished 13th.

“We’re training extra hard in practice,” said Favia. “Knowing that hard work gets you to state. We’re hoping for the best.”

At Thursday’s meet, Favia also won the 200 freestyle and she was a member of both winning freestyle relays.

Benet’s Katelyn Katsafanas won the 200 IM, Allison Pavlik touched first in the 100 freestyle and the Redwings Taylor Kramer won the diving competition.

Naperville Central’s winners included the 200 medley relay team, Maria Villa in the 50 free, Stephanie Jackson in the 100 butterfly, Kelley Lehane in the 100 backstroke and Julia Roller in the 100 breaststroke.

“Julia has been showing good potential in the breaststroke, so we’re happy with that,” said Naperville Central assistant coach Aaron Maschman. “But on the whole our girls are tired right now, because they’re coming off a couple of weeks of intensive workouts and it’s starting to show.”

© 2013 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.