Naperville Central’s varsity girls’ swimming and diving competed in the IHSA sectional on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Neuqua Valley High School.

Out of 12 schools, the Redhawks tied with North for fifth place with a total of 133 points, behind Rosary in first place, Oswego East in second, Waubonsie Valley in third and Neuqua Valley in fourth.

State qualifiers included senior Angie Benton, finishing in seventh place in the 50 Freestyle, senior Caitlin Guccione finishing sixth in the 100 Fly, sophomore Audrey Coffey finishing first in the 500 Freestyle and senior Julia Hagenbaumer finishing seventh in the 100 Breaststroke.

The girls also placed fifth in the 200 Medley Relay, fourth in the 200 Freestyle Relay and seventh in the 400 Freestyle Relay.

Senior Sydney Dusel qualified for state in diving with 499.8 points, placing first and remaining undefeated for the season. However, that was not her only victory.

“I set the Neuqua pool record two years ago when I was a sophomore, and I beat that score today, so I beat my own record by 40 points,” she said.

Her motto, “one dive at a time,” helps keep her positive in placing first at State.

“I’m feeling really confident,” Dusel said. “I know what my competition is, and if I do the dive just how I know how to do it, I should be in line to win.”

Guccione believes that the swimmers have improved appreciably as a team compared to last year.

“I think overall, we’re a lot more focused this year on swimming fast, and there’s a lot more cheering. I think we’re a lot more supportive of each other,” Guccione said. “People have really stepped up and our team wasn’t expected to do that well this year, but we’ve actually done really well.”

Guccione was by no means surprised to see Rosary’s team win sectionals, but hopes to beat North at State.

“In our 200 Medley Relay, we were right next to [North’s team],” Guccione said. “I was a little surprised we tied with North because we beat them at DVC, and we beat them at our dual meet, so I think we’ll beat them at State too, but I’m not sure.”

The Redhawks will compete at the IHSA state competition held at New Trier High School for the preliminaries on Nov. 20, and the top 12 will advance to compete on Nov. 21.