Hindsale Central’s Coady follows sister to college

Updated: September 20, 2011 7:38PM

For the record, Jen Coady looked into possibly swimming at Michigan State.

But if your parents met at Illinois and your sister currently swims for the Illini, did Jen have any other choice?

“I talked to Michigan State a little bit,” Jen Coady said. “I didn’t think I wanted to go there.”

Jen Coady should feel pretty comfortable by now around the Urbana-Champaign campus. She has been there too many times to count and made a verbal commitment Sept. 15 to swim there next season.

Coady leads a Hinsdale Central team that is considered the favorite in the West Suburban Silver this season after finishing sixth in the state meet. Coady, a Hinsdale resident, was ninth in last year’s 200-yard individual medley at the state meet and belonged to three relays — the 200 medley, the 200 free and the 400 free — finishing in the top eight at the state meet.

Coady’s sister, Sarah, is a 2009 Hinsdale Central graduate and led the Red Devils to second place at State in 2008. As a junior at Illinois, she competes in the IM and breaststroke and was an Academic All-Big Ten selection. Sarah is majoring in mechanical engineering.

The sisters’ parents, Judy and the late Tom Coady, attended Illinois. Tom attended Illinois from 1977-81 and was a letterman as an offensive tackle for the Illini football team in 1979 and 80 after graduating from Greendale High School in Wisconsin.

“There was not one specific thing that inspired me (about Illinois),” Jen Coady said. “There is nothing I don’t like about it. The Big Ten has everything.”

Jen is planning on majoring in business or marketing.

Jen doesn’t have a problem with uniting with her sister again. Both sisters were also teammates on the Westmont Swim Club.

The sisters would join freshman Katie Roeing of Glenbard West and sophomore Emily Wilkinson of Downers Grove North as the only other Illini swimmers from the West Suburban Conference.

Hinsdale Central lost a dual meet 138-48 at defending state champion New Trier Saturday, but competed without standout Genna Heidkamp, who missed the meet to make a college visit to Notre Dame.

The Red Devils did not win an event at New Trier, but Coady finished second in the 200 IM and was runner-up in her relays.

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