Schools
Western Springs' Schneider Wins Four State Swimming Titles for Fenwick
Sophomore Mimi Schneider of Western Springs helped the Fenwick girls swimming and diving team finish a program-best second at the state meet Saturday by winning the 100-yard butterfly and contributing to three state title relays.
Maybe Fenwick sophomore Mimi Schneider of Western Springs is pretty good at the butterfly after all.
Following the girls swimming and diving state meet Saturday, she had a state championship medal around her neck, as well as a few others, to prove it.
Schneider was part of the greatest day in program history as she contributed to four state championships in all four of her events and helped the Friars finish a program-best second as a team at New Trier.
Schneider won the 100-yard butterfly (53.57) after not competing at state in the event last year. She also was part of the state championship 200 medley relay (sophomore Maggie Sheean, junior Haley Wickham, Schneider, senior Maureen Barron in 1:43.39), 200 free relay (Schneider, sophomore Paulina Kaminski, Wickham, Barron in 1:34.04) and the 400 free relay (Kaminski, Wickham, Barron, Schneider in state-meet record 3:25.22). The 200 medley relay swam a state-meet record 1:42.50 in Friday’s preliminaries.
“(I’ll remember) probably just the happiness. I can’t even put this into words,” Schneider said. “I turned to everyone and people were just freaking out. They were going crazy. I’ve never won high school state. I’ve never won something that I care about this much and so I will never forget this moment. It was so special, and to share it with my best friends, it was even better.”
Schneider not only won her first state titles, but she also became the first 100 fly champion in school history. The lifelong resident of Western Springs is a graduate of St. John of the Cross and has been swimming competitively since she was 9.
Meanwhile, Fenwick had never previously won a state relay, but on Saturday became only the third school to win all three relays in the same state meet since the 200 free was added in 1990.
The only other teams to accomplish that were Rosary (2008) and Hinsdale Central (1993) en route to overall state titles. Fenwick (162 points) was beaten by New Trier (177) Saturday but had the most points of a state runner-up since 2002 and enough points to win state two times within that time span.
Besides Schneider, Kaminski won the 100 breaststroke (1:03.96) and was seventh in the 200 individual medley (2:05.87). Barron (50 free in 24.08) and Wickham (100 breast in 1:04.81) each were fourth, and senior Veronica Gibson was ninth in the 100 fly (56.81) and 12th in the 500 free (5:04.49).
Fenwick’s only other team trophy was third in 2009 (96 points) when senior Kelly Ryan captured the program’s only other state title in the 100 back. The Friars were fifth last year with 85 points.
“Fenwick has never had a relay win and then we had three relays win today, and we’ve never had anybody but a senior win an individual (title) and we had two sophomores win today. It was so fun,” Schneider said.
“Awe. I’m in such awe right now. I worked really hard this season, along with my team and we trained, did all we could. We overcame so much and we worked so hard and then to have this big of a payoff made everything worth it.”
Entries among the top 12 in Friday’s preliminaries advance to the finals in the championship (1st through 6th) and consolation (7th through 12th) heats.
Last year, Schneider was third in the 100 free and part of the second-place 200 free relay that was runner-up to Rosary, the fourth-place 400 free relay and seventh-place 200 medley relay.
While the three relay victories were pure adrenaline, the fly title was perhaps the sweetest. During her club season, Schneider competes for the Academy Bullets Swim Club and head site coach Mike Laurich. Academy Bullets Swim Club co-owner Bill Schalz also is the head coach for Rosary, which finished third Saturday (136.5 points).
“I was told this summer I wasn’t a flier by (Schalz), so it’s like, ‘Oh, I can swim fly this year.’ That one was just special because I had a little bit of an inside joke on that one,” Schneider said. “I just switched this year because I was really confident in my butterfly abilities. I might as well go for that and it worked.”
Schneider posted the top preliminary time in the 100 fly (53.63) and her 53.57 won the final by a dominating 1.09 seconds over Glenbard West/Glenbard South co-op senior Caroline Hsu (54.66).
Schneider’s fly also was instrumental to the medley relay. She swam the opening backstroke leg for last year’s medley relay but Sheean’s improvement in the back allowed Schneider to switch strokes.
The 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay won over New Trier by .49 and .89, respectively, and the 200 free relay won by .76 over Glenbrook South. The 400 free relay broke the state-meet record of 3:26.01 set by St. Charles in winning the 1999 state championship.
On Friday, the 200 medley relay (1:42.50) and 200 free relay (1:34.16) had the top times and the 400 free relay (3:26.77) was seeded second to New Trier (3:26.67). The 200 medley relay broke the previous state-meet record of 1:44.30 from Downers Grove North’s state championship race last year.
“The excitement from there (Friday’s 200 medley) carried through until now basically. Going from seventh to a state record was kind of a big deal,” Schneider said. “To keep it going (Saturday) was crazy. I can’t even talk fast enough to describe how I feel. It was the best feeling in the world.”
With two seasons left, Schneider already is tied for third in Fenwick history for top-12 state relay finishes behind Barron (nine) and 2010 graduate Stephanie Ovalle (seven). Schneider’s five top-six finishes is second to Barron’s seven that covers all of the Friars’ championship finalists other than the 2008 fifth-place 400 free relay.
State relay finishes are worth twice as many team points than individual finishes, such as 32 points versus 16 for state champions. Fenwick coach Renee Miller praised Schneider for wanting to swim with all three relays to maximize team points.
“She came to me and said, ‘You know what? To get a trophy, I need to swim three relays and we’re going to get it done,’ ” Miller said. “She is about going fast but she is about the whole team, the concept of what it really is to be a good person and to include as many people as you can to enjoy that moment.
“She’s a fabulous swimmer, don’t get me wrong, I love her for that, but the thing she brings is a really added dimension where she really encourages everyone to be their best from our most novice swimmer to the swimmer that swims next to her in fly every day (Gibson). She really is about not only her performances but about all of the performances.”
The Friars’ accomplishment has even more meaning since longtime coach Dave Perry died Sept. 11 at age 63 from cancer. Perry was an assistant coach for the 2010 team.
“He’s the one who brought me to girls swimming,” Miller said. “He was always there for the girls. I think they’ve just learned a lot about life (this season). He was a part of the entire aquatics department. He was kind of the heart and soul of what we stand for at Fenwick.”
