Schools
New Coach, Several LT Girls Swimmers With State Experience
New LT girls swimming coach Kurt Johns, a 1998 LT graduate, inherits an experienced lineup with five Lions who have competed at the state meet.
LYONS TOWNSHIP GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING PREVIEW
COACH: Kurt Johns (1st season)
2010 RESULTS: 5-0 in West Suburban Conference Silver Division duals; second at Silver Meet (275 points) and shared overall Silver title with Hinsdale Central; second at Downers Grove South Sectional (290 points); 15th at state meet (26 points)
RETURNING 2010 STATE QUALIFIERS: Senior Jennifer Weigand (500-yard freestyle, 200 medley relay, 200 free relay and 400 free relay); and juniors Katie Foran (200 free relay, 400 free relay), Louisa Hoffman (200 free relay), Kristine Rosenberger (50 free, 200 medley relay and 200 free relay) and Elly Vitek (100 free, 200 free, 400 free relay)
OTHER VARSITY RETURNEES: Senior Lizzy Kozin and junior Maddie Naughton
KEY VARSITY NEWCOMER: Junior Allie Johnson
OUTLOOK: There may be a new look with Johns taking over as head coach, but the Lions also have five returnees who have qualified for the state meet.
Johns is coaching girls swimming for the first time after being the head boys swimming coach at Naperville North the past seven seasons. Johns is a 1998 LT graduate who competed for head coach Scott Walker, LT’s girls coach the previous 17 seasons who remains the boys head coach. Walker and Johns are brothers-in-law.
“They’ve worked really hard. They’ve been really receptive to my coming in. It’s helped because we’ve had consistency with (second-year assistant coach Dana Krolikiewicz) back,” Johns said.
“There’s nothing vastly different that I do versus what Scott has done all of these years in the past, but just having somebody different saying it to them might help. I like a lot of things that are similar to his program that are part of my program. It’s a good group – very, very talented. We’ll see how things go.”
Weigand and graduated Gigi Groya qualified for the maximum four state events last season after Weigand also advanced in three events in 2009. Weigand, Foran, Hoffman and Rosenberger all saw action to the second day of state in their relays after being among the top 12 performances in the preliminaries.
All three relays reached the consolation finals for teams among the seventh through 12th fastest preliminary times. The 200 free relay of Rosenberger, Hoffman, Foran and Weigand took eighth (1:38.27) and the 200 medley relay with Rosenberger and Weigand (1:48.57) and 400 free relay with Foran, Weigand and Vitek (3:33.43) both were ninth. Individually, Vitek was 21st in the 100 free (53.71) and 31st in the 200 free (1:56.42), Weigand was 28th in the 500 free (5:08.27) and Rosenberger tied for 28th in the 50 free (25.02).
At state in 2009, Weigand reached the championship finals with her older sister Hillary in the 200 free relay and took sixth (1:37.41). Weigand also was part of the 10th-place 400 free relay (3:35.38) and qualified in the 500 free (33rd, 5:12.45).
Kozin, meanwhile, also made her state debut in the 200 individual medley (39th, 2:14.87) and 100 fly (40th, 59.99). Kozin, Naughton and Sam Patel are this year's team captains.
Johnson is the top varsity newcomer for diving coach Christy (Witte) Williams after the graduation of state qualifier Emma Meyering (16th) and Kate Wolz. Four freshmen may also contribute.
The rest of the swimming lineup should be solid with a core group of roughly 10 others.
“We do have depth. We’re looking for a couple of girls to step up from that depth,” Johns said. “It’s going to take our entire team. We’re going to need more than just (our state returnees).”
The overall Silver title is a 50-50 combination of regular season dual and Silver Meet standings. The Lions finished 28 points behind Hinsdale Central at the Silver Meet to miss out on their first outright title since 2002 but they still shared their first crown since 2003 since they defeated the Red Devils 102-82 in the dual.
The Lions lost their season opener 107-79 at Naperville North Thursday despite event victories by Weigand (500 free), Rosenberger (50 free), the 200 free relay (Foran, Hoffman, Rosenberger, Weigand) and the 400 free relay of (Weigand, Kosin, Hoffman, Vitek).
QUOTABLE: “Not having as good an understanding on the girls side what area teams have, it is really hard (to list goals),” Johns said. “I’d assume we’ll compete for a conference championship, assume we’ll do very well at sectionals and I hope we do very well at state. I think that we would have similar aspirations this year. If the girls can put it together, they could possibly do better than (15th at state).”
