1 Lake Forest
2 Lane Tech
3 Schaumburg
4 St. Charles North
5 Naperville Central
6 Neuqua Valley
7 Buffalo Grove
8 Dunlap
1 St. Ignatius
2 Stevenson
3 Libertyville
4 New Trier
5 Hinsdale Central
6 Fenwick
7 Metea Valley
8 Byron
1 Loyola
2 Oswego East
3 Deerfield
4 Rosary
5 Naperville North
6 Hersey
7 West Chicago
8 Lyons Township
The relays really bore the brunt of the state’s lack of depth this year and with the meet being in an 8-lane pool moving forward we will always have 24 spots in the circle seeded heats. No relay reached 30 qualifiers which is the benchmark for creating the state cuts and in the case of the medley Byron and Dunlap are in the circles without even making the cut.
My most anticipated matchup is NT v HC in the middle circle as I have confidence that they will both get faster, which isn’t something I can say about most other teams. I have liked HC all year, but it is hard to see anyone beating NT with the open water they should have at the 100. NC had a great sectional and it will be interesting to see what they have left against a St. Charles Squad that I expect to set the early standard prior to the aforementioned NT/HC Showdown. The final heat has not just a sectional rematch, but a battle of NN that was one of the fastest teams in all 3 relays all year and Rosary coming off a huge drop at the sectional. Even if they don’t improve, the Beads should be safely in the top 6.