Joliet Township wins girls swimming dual on Lemont’s senior night

LEMONT – In some ways, everyone was a winner Thursday night at the Lemont Park District Pool.

The Lemont girls swimming team scored wins in several events and celebrated its four seniors. As for Joliet Township, it put a win in the scorebook.

The co-op of Joliet West and Joliet Central scored 175 points as a team ahead of 111 by Lemont to secure the victory in the dual meet.

“I think we swam pretty well today,” Joliet coach Nick Koenig said. “We got stuck in traffic on the way here, but otherwise I’m happy with the way tonight went. It’s our last dual of the season and we like swimming at Lemont. We saw them earlier in the season and it was good to come out here. We’re hoping to cary it on through conference and sectional before hopefully getting some girls down to state.”

While Joliet may have spoiled the evening in some ways, you wouldn’t have known that looking at the faces of the girls on Lemont’s team.

Victoria Krol, Savanah Schikora, Milena Maksimovich and Jovana Maksimovich were the four seniors being honored.

“I’m just so happy,” Krol said. “I just feel all the love of my teammates and I’m having a great time. ... I’m proud to have been a member of this amazing team. We’re all a big family, we’re super close and these are all the best friends I have.”

As for the event itself, it all started with the 200-yard medley relay with the Joliet team of Eliza Potocki, Abigail Mosier, Erin Mosier and Emma Overall winning with a time of 2:01.84.

Overall was also the 200 freestyle winner with a time of 1:58.47, while Potocki took the 200 individual medley in 2:27. Abigail Mosier won the 50 freestyle in 22.61 and the 100 butterfly in 1:03.09.

It was Potocki again in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:06.13, while Keira Mosier took the 100 breaststroke in 1:19.63.

Erin Mosier, Amelia Miller, Sophia Ortiz and Ava Gombosi combined to win the 400 freestyle relay in 4:03.42.

Joliet Township was the victor in every event, but there were still many times to be celebrated from Lemont.

Krol finished second in the 100 butterfly by just a hair with a time of 1:04.24.

As for the other seniors, Schikora had a fifth-place finish in the 50 freestyle in 35.85, Milena Maksimovich was third in the 100 backstroke in 1:09.03 and Jovana Maksimovich was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:27.

“It’s been a good night, and the season has been good,” first-year coach Mike Forsythe said. “The girls are putting up some fast times. Joliet Township has been really good and are a really good program. They’ve come out and are really pushing our swimmers, so we really appreciate what they do. That’s helping us get our best times tonight.”

There’s still a few weeks until the South Suburban Conference meet and sectional right after.

While both teams are excited about where they’re at right now, Krol said that she and Lemont can be and will be even better moving forward.

“We had a lot of good competition today,” she said. “We’re definitely going to have to push even harder at our upcoming conference meet and sectional.”