By Randy Whalen

Emma Overall had to wait 2 1/2 years to do something that hadn't happened for a Joliet Township girls swimmer in 34 years.

To say it was worth the wait for the senior is an understatement. 

Overall recently medaled twice at the Illinois High Association State Swimming Finals, held on Friday and Saturday,  November 15 and 16 at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.

She became the first Joliet Township swimmer since Kristen Rakoski in the 1990-91 season to medal at state. Rakoski placed 10th in the 100-yard butterfly and 12th in the 200-yard individual medley for Joliet West

Overall attends Joliet West but now the team is a co-op between Joliet Central and West. This season, Overall placed sixth in the 500-yard freestyle and eighth in the 200-yard freestyle at state.

"It was a lot of fun," Overall said of her state finishes. "It was like it all came together and it was so exciting, especially representing the team.

"We put out that Joliet is coming back and we've worked hard for this." 

It's been quite a swimming journey for Overall. She swam for Joliet Township as a freshman in the fall of 2021. But she hurt her shoulder midway through the season and couldn't swim at the sectional. Also, after the first semester of her freshman year, Overall transferred to Yorkville Christian. 

She was then at Yorkville Christian for a year and a half. But there was no swimming at the school. So while Overall continued to swim well for the Academy Bullets club team, she wasn't swimming in high school. 

So starting her junior year, she transferred back to Joliet West. However, due to the IHSA transfer rules, she had to sit out a season. She didn't come back until this season, and what a season it was.

"It definitely was a motivating factor because I wanted to swim high school again," Overall said of transferring back to Joliet. "There was a redemption factor for me and a motivation too. 

"Plus swimming again for coach Nick was a huge factor. He's such a huge supporter of the girls and he's been amazing for us."

Coach Nick is Joliet Township coach Nick Koenig, who was ecstatic that Overall returned. 

"I was very happy to hear that she was coming back," Koenig said. "Having her brought our team to another level and she was able to elevate everyone else on the team."

That showed in the regular season, as Joliet captured first place in two invites Those were the Warrior College Events Invite on Saturday, September 21, at Lincoln-Way West and the Andrew Invitational on Saturday, October 12, in Tinley Park.

So when the Lincoln-Way Central Sectional came around, on Saturday, November 9, Joliet was ready. While some of the teams swimmers fell just short of advancing to state, overall it was a great sectional for Joliet. Especially for Overall, who won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute: 51.16 seconds to beat out freshman Emma Rapcan from Lincoln-Way Central (1:54.67) by over three seconds. 

Overall also set a new pool record in the 200. The previous one was 1:53.24, which was set by Katie Gresik from Oswego last year. So she shattered it.

Then in the 500-yard freestyle, Overall (4:58.59) beat out Rapcan (5:09.36) by nearly 11 seconds to win and also set another pool record This one was also by a huge margin as Gresik (5:04.27) also held that record and had set it last year. Rapcan also qualified for state in both events. 

"In the past, I've said that I like the 500 better," Overall answered when asked which event she liked best. "I still enjoy swimming it, but now I'd say I like the 200 better. It's more of a sprint race. I still like the training for the 500 though. I do a lot of long sets training for the 500."

The last time Joliet had a girl advance to state was in the fall of 2012. That's when Trisha Cavarubbia, a then senior, qualified in the 100-yard backstroke with a second-place sectional finish time of 58.19 seconds.

At the sectional, Joliet placed second in the 200-yard freestyle relay as junior Ava Gombosi along with junior Erin Mosier, senior Abby Mosier, and Overall came in with a time of 1:40.05 

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Joliet was also second as the same foursome, except the sisters' order was reversed, performing eight seconds better than their seed time with a time of 3:41.01.

Doing well individually with Top 5 finishes for Joliet was Gombosi (3rd, 100-yard freestyle, 54.65 seconds, 4th, 100-yard backstroke, 59.81 seconds), Erin Mosier (4th, 200-yard IM, 2:18.40, 5th, 100-yard breaststroke, 1:11.30), sophomore Lila Abbott (5th, 500-yard freestyle, 5:29.51) and freshman Eliza Potocki (5th, 100-yard backstroke, 1:01.81).

The team standings in the tough sectional were Lockport Township, which won its second straight sectional and eighth since 2013 with 268 points, finishing first. Lincoln-Way Central (252) was second and Joliet (196) edged an always-competitive Lincoln-Way East (191) team for third. Andrew (145), Bradley-Bourbonnais (127), Lincoln-Way West (69), Homewood-Flossmoor (66), Kankakee (41), Tinley Park (15), Morris (10), and Thornton Fractional South (6) rounded out the 12 team field. 

"Sectionals and state went great.," Koenig said. "I'm very proud of the sectional team finishing third overall and scoring 196 points! We had great swims by Emma Overall, Erin Mosier, Abby Mosier, Lila Abbott, Eliza Potocki, (freshman) Keira Mosier, and (sophomore) Amelia Miller for their podium finishes. Emma also set the pool records in the 200 and 500 at Lincoln-Way Central."

This is Koenig's sixth season as the girls' swimming coach at Joliet Township. This season looks to be the start of something special as there are only six seniors in the program, including the JV team. The seniors are Isabela Herrada, Jessica Mikuta, Abby Mosier, Grace O’Brien, Overall, and Serena Raimondi.

On the opening day of state, Overall qualified in the 200-free with a seventh-place mark of 1:50.69. in the preliminaries. In the 500-free, she had a prelim time of 4:55.00, which was fourth. More importantly, those put her in the Top 8 in both events. 

By virtue of that, she swam in the top (medal) group at state in both events. She placed eighth in the 200 (1:51.92) but missed a Top 4 finish by just over two seconds. She was sixth in the 500 (4:57.30) but was a second out of placing fourth. 

Of course, the finishes were both great and resulted in medals. They couldn't have been done without her support system too. 

"Ava Gombosi was there for me all weekend," Overall said. "She was there on the deck pushing me and encouraging me. That was huge."

Overall, everyone was happy.

"We are very proud of Emma and her state final finish," Koenig said. "She's a very hard worker and I'm so excited for her and what she was able to accomplish. 

"She was a great person to coach, is under All-American consideration, and has been special. She's graduating early and she works as a lifeguard. She does all the little things right, in and out of the pool."

A Shorewood resident, Overall was like many of her teammates and started swimming early.

"I first got involved in swimming when I was three or four at the YMCA but I didn't get into it competitively until I was seven," Overall said. "I like being in the water. I got to swim with my older sister, Macy, during my freshman year. She was a freshman and then we both transferred to Yorkville Christian."

Overall has committed to continue her academic and swimming career at the University of Houston. She has more awesome things ahead for her, but she'll never forget her time at Joliet.

"This was definitely the best team-wise," Overall said of the season. "The culture was motivating and uplifting. I've swam for a long time and I don't think I could have done it without these girls."