LF_111518

30 | November 15, 2018 | The lake forest leader SPORTS
LakeForestLeader.com
Scouts’ juniors qualify for state in second straight year
Todd Marver
Freelance Reporter
For the second year in
a row, Lake Forest juniors
Kendra Joachim and Julia
Tanna qualified for state.
The Scouts took fifth
place as a team with a score
of 163 at its own Lake Forest
Sectional on Saturday,
Nov. 10, in Lake Forest.
Joachim qualified for
state in the 200-yard and
500-yard freestyle races.
She took fourth place in
the 200 free with a time of
1 minute, 53.31 seconds,
and third place in the 500
free with a time of 5:08.09.
“I think it went really
well,” she said. “It’s my
first time doing that combo
at sectionals. The 500 was
a little rough this year, but
I think the 200 went really
well. I haven’t gotten to
swim that at the end of the
season in a few years, so it
was just nice to be back in
at this meet.”
Scouts coach Carolyn
Grevers concurred with
Joachim that the 200 free
was her best performance
out of the two races.
“She got up in the 200
freestyle,” Grevers said.
“That was her stronger
of her two races. That’ll
be a fun, fast race next
weekend. The 500, I think
she’s got a lot of room to
improve, so I’m going to
do a couple of different
things this week to help
her get ready and we’ll
see what she can do at
state.”
Joachim is battling back
from a shoulder injury earlier
this season. Grevers
was confident Joachim
would qualify for state, although
she wasn’t sure exactly
how fast she’d swim.
“Based on what we were
doing in training and the
kind of paces she was doing
that she was going to have
some good races,” Grevers
said. “We just didn’t know
where the times were going
to be since we didn’t get to
see her build up through the
season. Regardless I knew
that she could make these
cuts. This was all about
just forgetting your fears
and just racing and she did
that.”
Joachim already has a
plan of what she wants to
accomplish at the IHSA
state meet.
“I’d like to improve
from where I’m at right
now,” Joachim said. “I
think I could do better in
both races. I’m pretty familiar
with the pool it’s at
this year since it’s at Evanston
and I swam there with
club a couple times.”
Although Joachim is just
a junior, she is a leader of
the team being a two-time
state qualifier.
“She does strive to be
the person that everyone
should want to try to train
like, the person you want
to try to be like, being
respectful, hard worker
and just being on top of
it every single day, every
single training set and every
single thing she does
in school and everything,”
Grevers said.
Tanna qualified for
state in all four athletes
with disabilities races for
the second consecutive
year. She took second
place in each the 200 free
(3:21.84), 50 free (44.68),
100 free (1:36.36) and 100
breaststroke (2:09.00).
“I think she’s right
where she was at state last
year,” Grevers said. “You
can already see there’s improvement
there. What her
challenge is going to be is
having four big races in
one meet and then doing it
again next week. So we’re
just going to work on trying
to keep that speed.”
Grevers detailed Tanna’s
improvement since
competing at last year’s
state meet.
“I think she’s just a little
bit stronger and bolder and
she’s just doing a better job
of consistency throughout
everything she does,”
Grevers said. “It’s just
good to see her being on
top of what she wants to be
and then being able to still
perform here in the races.”
Besides Joachim and
Tanna, Lake Forest’s state
qualifiers, the rest of the
team participated in its last
competition of the season
either at the sectional or
the conference meet the
week before.
“I’m proud of everyone
on the team,” Joachim
said. “They did great. All
the girls that swam conference
last week and that
was their final meet, they
did amazing. And everyone
today did awesome. It
was great to be around everyone
because everyone
was just so positive today
and the whole entire season.
It flew by because we
had so much fun.”
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A 22ND CENTURY MEDIA PRODUCTION
Kendra Joachim swims a leg of the 200-yard freestyle race at the Lake Forest Sectional
Saturday, Nov. 10, in Lake Forest. Alex Newman/22nd Century Media