Girls swimming: Relay sparks Hinsdale South’s trip to State
Western Springs, 11/12/11-- Hinsdale South's Kiana Shin swims the 100 yd Butterfly 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 15, 2011 7:08PM
As expected, Hannah Veselik and Maya Rodrigues are returning to the State Meet this weekend for their second consecutive trips.
What wasn’t expected was that the Hinsdale South duo would be taking a few teammates along when the Hornets finished third (1:50.74) in the 200-yard medley relay to reach the state qualifying time at the Lyons Sectional Saturday in Western Springs. The state qualifying time is 1:50.90.
Veselik and Rodrigues, a pair of seniors, will be joined by senior Dana Vinyard and freshman Rachel Hawkens. Rodrigues credited Hawkens with putting the relay over the top with her strong backstroke. The Hornets’ sectional time is ranked 31st among state qualifiers.
The state preliminaries begin at 3:30 p.m. Friday and the finals will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at New Trier.
Rodrigues isn’t sure how she’ll do in her return in the 100 breast (1:08.22) at the state meet. She fully tapered for the sectional.
“I will double taper and see how that will work out,” Rodrigues said.
She finished 23rd in last year’s state meet, but is ranked 38th among state qualifiers based on sectional times.
The 200 medley relay was the first event of the sectional. Rodrigues had to wait out the rest of the meet to see if she would qualify in her signature individual event. The 100 breaststroke was the meet’s final individual event, the 11th out of 12 overall events.
Rodrigues was second with a time of 1:08.22, finishing behind Hinsdale Central’s Lindsay Pavich (1:06.51) in the 100 breaststroke.
“I feel good about everything,” Rodrigues said. “At State, I’d like to have fun. We have worked hard and had a good season.”
Veselik returns after finishing 34th in last year’s State Meet in her top event, the 100 fly. She ranks 39th among state qualifiers and was third of four qualifiers from the sectional.
Veselik (58.93) beat the state qualifying time of 59.40. She finished behind Hinsdale Central’s Hannah Lillioja (58.42) and Genna Heidkamp (58.49) and the fourth qualifying spot went to Lyons’ Jennifer Weigand (59.21).
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