By Randy Whalen

The last time the Joliet Township girls' swimming team walked off the swimming pool deck at Lockport Township High School, the team felt good about itself. 

That was at the end of last season and Joliet Township placed fifth in a loaded sectional. That was the team's highest placement in a sectional in over 20 years.

With all but two swimmers back, optimism for this season is certainly high. That was on display last week when Joliet opened the season at the same place it ended last year: at the Lockport Lady Porter Relay Invite on Saturday, August 24.

"We only lost two seniors from last year," Joliet Township senior Abby Mosier said of Emily Johnson and Emma Miller. "So the goal for ourselves and as a team is to have some of us make it to state. 

"We want to reach the goals for ourselves heading into the sectional. We did well (in the first meet) and everyone is proud of themselves."

The Lockport Invite was an all-relay one. Joliet's highest placement in an event was fourth. That was in a unique 3x100-yard backstroke relay. There junior Eliza Potocki, sophomore Lila Abbott, and junior Ava Gombosi placed fourth with a time of 3 minutes:13.78 seconds. That time missed second place by just under two seconds and missed third by just one-tenth of a second.  

"I think everyone was positive," Gombosi said of the meet. "We're just working to get better times. I think the 400-yard freestyle relay is probably our best event. We hope we can get that relay to state."

The 400-yard relay of Gombosi, Abbott, junior Erin Mosier, and Abby Mosier saw Joliet get a sixth-place finish with a time of 3:56.10. But that was just over three seconds out of fourth, just over a second out of fifth, and over 13 seconds ahead of the seventh-place team. 

It was one of three sixth-place finishes, which was in the upper half of the teams at the invite, on the day for Joliet Township. The other two sixth-place finishes were the foursome of Abbott, freshman Keira Mosier, junior Alaina Potocki, and freshman Sophia Ortiz with a time of 2:07.03 in the 200-yard medley relay. That was half a second out of fifth and less than three seconds out of fourth.

Joliet also placed sixth in the 3x100 butterfly relay. There Abigail Mosier, Potocki, and Erin Mosier turned in a time of 3:25.62. That edged out Lockport by six-tenth of a second. 

"I like to swim the distance events," Abbott said. "It inspires with grit and mentally you have to push to keep going. It helps with all aspects of life.

"We just want to keep pushing for state. But along the way we want to do fun team stuff, support each other, get our best times, and have fun out there."

Erin Mosier agreed that this season's squad is concentrating on having a positive mental attitude. 

"We all want to be a supportive giver and not a taker," she said. "We are still figuring out some of our spots. But I love how we bond over our sets.

"One of our goals is to continue to have a positive attitude and keep that culture of positivity."

That positivity showed in the team standings. Despite not garnering any points for diving, because it doesn't have any, Joliet placed sixth out of the 13 teams at Lockport. 

West Chicago Community, which co-ops with Batavia and Geneva, finished first with 312 points. Oswego, which co-ops with Oswego East, was second at 278 points, and Plainfield, which is a co-op of all four Plainfield High Schools, placed third with 254 points.

Lockport (230), Sandburg (220), Joliet Township (152), Riverside-Brookfield (150), Andrew (134), Lincoln-Way East (128), Bradley-Bourbonnais (116), Lincoln-Way West (108), Stagg (104), and Richards (16) rounded out the 13-team field.

To put it in perspective, of the teams that were in last season's sectional at Lockport, Joliet Township placed third.

Last season's sectional, which was held on Saturday, Nov. 4, saw host Lockport (255 points) finish first in four events and win its first sectional in four years. Sandburg (241), which won the sectional in 2022, was second, followed by Lincoln-Way Central (237), Lincoln-Way West (125), Joliet Co-Op (123), Stagg (113), Andrew (92), Lemont (86.5), Bradley-Bourbonnais (56), Kankakee (30 ), Shepard (24), Morris (12.5) rounded out the 12-team field. 

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. The team hopes to change that this year.

The sectional assignments aren't out yet. But the sites are listed. Both Lincoln-Way and Sandburg host sectionals, meaning the Lincoln-Way schools will likely be separate from Lockport and Sandburg this season. Joliet should be in one of those sectionals and be able to compete well with the other teams.   

"I'm hoping to build off last year and we want to do better than that," Joliet Township coach Nick Koenig said. "It looks like there will be some split up of last season's (sectional) teams so there will be more parody.

"Last year we only had two seniors and this season we have five (Isabela Herrada, Jessica Mikuta, Abby Mosier, Grace O’Brien, and Emma Overall). I'm expecting a lot out of them this season. I'm happy with (the Lockport results) and we're excited for the season."

Joliet Township will host four dual meets this season, all starting at 5 PM, including the next two on the schedule. Those are this Thursday, August 29 against Lincoln-Way West, and next Thursday, September 5 against Morris Community. They will all be held at the Inwood Athletic Club in Joliet.