Illinois H.S.toric

It took a long time for the Illinois High School Association to let everyone in the pool.

But once they did, swimming turned out to be one of the most popular sports for females.

You still have to stand in line to get a ticket to the state finals held at the end of each fall, usually at either New Trier or Evanston High Schools. It's the only IHSA event besides boys swimming guaranteed to be a sellout and the popularity of the sport shows no sign of decreasing.

Certainly the roots of the sport don't run as deep as they do for the boys. Life in the fast lane for the girls, at least as an IHSA-sanctioned activity, didn't start until 1975. But it didn't take long to blossom.

Now no one worries that girls might become TOO competitive. Now it's OK for them to sweat and have the desire to win, just like the guys. And schools take just as much pride in the individual and team accomplishments in the pool by girls as they do for other sports.

In other words, they've come a long way, baby.

THE FIRST TIME

When the first state meet was conducted at New Trier in the fall of 1975, swimmers and divers from 133 schools took the plunge. But no one really knew what to expect. Since many schools, especially Downstate, didn't field full teams during the season, a number of competitors qualified on their own. And no one quite knew how to deal with the number of qualifiers crowding onto the deck for the first day of competition.

"Quite a few schools had teams, but they allowed AAU swimmers who didn't have teams to qualify too," said Dawn Butler, a member of the first IHSA advisory board and coach of the first team champion at Park Ridge Maine South. "There must have been 60 girls on the deck. They were packed in there like sardines."

"Most of the girls who swam AAU knew who the hotshot individuals were. We had won a big invitational the previous year so we knew we had a chance to go for it. But it was one of the most stressful situations I've ever been involved with, because the meet went down to the very last race."

Butler's squad edged Wheaton North 109-107 in what is still the closest meet in state final history. And it took a little help from a friendly rival for the Hawks to claim the first trophy.

Kim Lindstrom of Maine South won both the 500-yard freestyle and 200 individual medley to give the Hawks an early advantage. But Wheaton North figured to make up for lost ground in the breaststroke, where freshman Kathy Kooser was the odds-on favorite in the meet' second-to-last event.

Instead it was Dawn Jensen of Maine East who touched the wall first, in 1:09.13. That gave her district rivals just the opening they needed.

"There was no doubt that the other girl was supposed to win," recalled Butler. "I know Dawn had the flu and a 102-degree fever and the only reason she swam was because the doctor said it couldn't hurt her. I couldn't believe it when she won. That helped us so much. We never cheered so hard for an opponent again!

"We knew all we had to do then was finish third in the (400 freestyle) relay, but the kids were still under a lot of pressure. We did finish third, by three-hundredths of a second."

Maine South's hopes seemed to be dashed in the prelims of the IM, when Lindstrom was temporarily disqualified. Butler will never forget those anxious moments, either.

"Kim was ahead by a length when she made the final turn in the breaststroke, and one of the referees raised a hand for a disqualification," the coach said. "Kim was in tears when I went over there after the race was over.

"There were three judges at the end of each lane, but this main was judging from the side, and he said that Kim didn't get her head above the water before she took her first stroke. They went into a conference room and had a long discussion for about 15 minutes before they decided it wasn't an illegal turn. It took a long time for our kids to calm down after that."

Butler isn't one to take credit for being one of the sport's pioneers, even though the Hawks also placed second in the state in 1976.

"I don't think at the time the IHSA had any idea about the interest that was out there for girls in swimming," she said. "I believe the IHSA was afraid there'd be a lawsuit if they didn't add more sports. They didn't want contact sports, so swimming was one the first sports they brought in."

Other individual champs crowned that first year included Lori Stauffer of St. Charles (50 freestyle), Kathy Hemmer of Lake Forest (200 freestyle, 100 butterfly), Mary Rish of Wheaton (North) backstroke), Cindy Allen of New Trier East (diving), and Teri Changnon of Glenbrook North (100 freestyle).
Changnon was a sophomore at the time and went on to capture a gold medal in the 400 relay, too. She led Glenbrook North to the team title as a senior.

"I swam AAU, and swimming was more like an intramural sport in high school at first," Changnon said, "But by my senior year it really took off. There wasn't a packed house (in the stands) that first year, either.

"It was hard for the coached to pick events for us when we first started. The 100 was my best event at that time. What I remember most is that I was very nervous, because at that level one-hundredth of a second can make a big difference. But I also knew that I wanted to get a first place in that first meet, because I had worked hard in swimming all my life. And it was very exciting when I won."

That's one thing that hasn't changed.

THE DYNASTIES

The year-round nature of the sport soon produced dynasties unmatched in other sports. Swim coaches didn't have off-season limitations in involvement with their athletes like other sports did.

That's one reason Bruce Woodbury led New Trier to seven straight state titles in the 1980's, why Carol Bobo (nee Lambert) and her Hinsdale Central teams ruled the roost six times, and why St. Charles has dominated for the last five years.
Not coincidentally, all three schools boast some of the top boys swim programs, too.

"At that time we had a very strong age group program, plus we had talented kids with dedicated parents and a great support from the school," Woodbury noted.

"We had raw talent, but we didn't have a lot of superstars. The team aspect was a big thing and that remained true over the years. The kids were unselfish, and so were the parents.

"When that streak first started we were ahead of the other schools in our training, and we also had better numbers than a lot of them. We had real good divers, too. At least two years in there we won because of the divers."

Woodbury never let the weight of the winning streak bead down on the girls themselves, even though expectations were always high.

"That first title (in 1981) was kinda expected because the two schools (New Trier East, New Trier West) had come back together again. After that there was pressure to keep it going, but part of the reason we were able to repeat was that we had confidence in ourselves. Our focus was always on the end of the season. The tradition was important, and the kids just knew we'd do well at the end of the season.

"There were times we weren't in first place after the prelims. But we also knew they didn't count the points until Saturday. We cam through when a lot of teams couldn't take the pressure.

The tradition was already in place when Lambert took over the Hinsdale Central program, at least on the boys side. Her older brother Bruce was a part of four state championship teams and she herself was an accomplished club swimmer in the days before Title IX.

After a two-year IHSA experiment in which the girls season was held during the winter, Bobo/Lambert and Hinsdale won two in a row when the permanent move was made back to the fall in 1979 and 1980.

In the stretch between 1990 and 1993, the Red Devils never lost a dual meet or a state meet.

"We took it one step at a time, and we always required 100 percent from the kids no matter what, starting from Day 1," said Bobo.

"That first year we won it was so cool because we finally had an outlet for the girls to compete. I always thought the relays were the key, and we tried to build around that (Hinsdale won 17 relay crowns during here tenure). The second year in that stretch (1991) quite honestly we won it because we had bigger hearts than the competition. They knew what they wanted, and they got it done.

"This has been a tremendous swim community since the pool was built here in 1959. Our kids "Walk the Wall" in our spectator area where all of our champions have their pictures up, so they know about the past. They're reminded of it every day."

THE SUPERSTARS

No list would be complete without the names of Kim Tesch of Waukegan West and Lone Foss of Evanston. Tesch won the 50 freestyle in 1981 and 1983 and swept top honors in the backstroke from 1981 through 1983. She set a state record for the backstroke as a sophomore.

"My sophomore year, I really didn't have that true competitive spirit, even though I liked to do my best," said Tesch. "The older I got, the more competitive I became. But what a fantastic adventure high school swimming was for me. I draw on that experience every day of my life.

"I was at the top of the mountain after winning state as a sophomore. I found out it was much harder to stay there than it was to get to the top."

Foss spent here entire career at the top of her specialty, diving. She and Kim Yager of Oak Forest (1985-87) are the only divers in history to rule the state pool three straight years. But no one has approached Foss' magical score of 498.35, achieved at the state meet in November of 1979.

Evanston diving coach Him Blickenstaff knows that to this day certain swim coaches are convinced that Foss' performance was ranked too highly by less-than-critical judges.

"That might be the perception, and some day someone will score 500 points," he acknowledged. "But the big thing was that she hit all 11 dives and no one else has been able to do that. She was consistent, and she performed under pressure. And she was doing some complicated dives at that time (like a reverse one and one-half with a one and one-half twist) and not very many girls are even doing them now. She was also willing to work year-round, and most girls aren't willing to do that kind of work."

Foss is the only diver ever to be named "Swimmer of the Year" in Illinois.
"Coach Blickenstaff taught me the fundamentals, and every year he increased (degree of) difficulty," Foss said. "By the time I got to college I was doing a list comparable to a man's list.

"My sophomore year I broke my wrist and I basically came out of nowhere. It was a lot harder and scarier to get up there and defend it when I was a junior. And when I set the record I don't think I was any kind of judge's favorite. I just hit all of my dives, and I did it under pressure."

THE GREAT RACE

When it comes to sprinters, Illinois has never seen two faster than Lindsey Farella of Elk Grove and Alison Wimer of Palatine. Both were already established in the pantheon of superstars by the time they met in the 1996 state finals.

But the matchup in the 50 and 100 freestyle events wasn't assured until Farella, who won the 50 and 100 as a freshman but then took two years off from high school competition to train with her club team, decided to take a final fling in the high school season.

Wimer's credentials included gold medals in the 50 as sophomore and junior, and she had also helped Palatine claim four state relay titles as an underclassmen.
Fans are still buzzing about the pure display of speed by the two standouts. Farella won the 200 freestyle in a record 1:49.37, and Wimer ruled the 50 with a national mark of 22.78.

What could they do for an encore in the 100? They both eclipsed the state record with Farella winning by the length of a fingernail, 50.16 to 50.20.