Glenbrook North junior Emily Clesen, seen here at the start of the 50 freestyle, sped to the school mark in the 100 backstroke (58.51) at the GBN Sectional. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE HANDWERKER
Robin Walker received one text message, then another, then another throughout a morning last weekend. The Glenbrook North girls swimming coach figured he got nine texts, at least, all coming from former Spartans swimmers.
Music. Walker’s phone was making sweet, haphazard music on Nov. 14, the day Glenbrook North hosted a 13-team sectional meet. Each alumna had taken the time to wish Walker and his current crew well.
The text messages moved Walker, heartened Walker, buoyed Walker.
“How great is that, former girls in our program thinking about us on a Saturday, on the morning of a sectional?” Walker, in his 23rd season at the school, said. “All these alumni, from all over the country, hitting the pause button in their lives to take the time to text me, to encourage our girls … great. I think that’s great.”
Walker, after the meet, revealed he would text Glenbrook North graduate Christina Park, now a junior at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, with some significant news from Northbrook. Park’s school mark in the 100-yard backstroke (58.58) had been supplanted by Spartans junior Emily Clesen. Clesen, a JV swimmer two years ago, pulled her way to a third-place and state-qualifying time of 58.51 on Nov. 14.
“Christina, no doubt,” Walker said, “will be happy for Emily.”
Clesen, the reigning Central Suburban League North champion in the 100 backstroke, produced good news early in the sectional, serving as the lead-off leg for the Spartans’ 200 medley relay. Her backstroke split: an electric 27.1, 1.4 seconds faster than her previous personal-best split. Sophomore Tiffany Qiao hit the water next for the Spartans, followed by sophomore Ellen Gilbert, followed by junior anchor Sabrina Baxamusa. The quartet’s fourth-place time of 1:47.45 was state-meet worthy and represented a four-plus second shearing of its seed time.
“I like doing that,” the 5-foot-6 Clesen, fully tapered for the sectional, said of the opportunity to set a crucial tone as the first leg of the first event at meets. “I got out of the pool [after the backstroke leg at the sectional], and I wasn’t tired at all. I was breathing hard, yes, but my legs weren’t burning; they felt great. I wasn’t in any kind of pain. I remember thinking, How did I do that?”
All she wanted to achieve in the 100 back was a state-cut time or better. The state cut in the event: 59.08. Her seed time in the event: 1:00.71 Her lane number in the event: 7, an unenviable slot since it is closer to a pool’s side than it is to the event’s fastest racers. It turned out to be a good number for Clesen, luck having nothing to do with the result — a school record.
“I had absolutely no idea that I had set the record when I finished,” Clesen said. “I think it hit me when I saw my teammates jumping up and down for me. Multiple people came up to me later and said, ‘You deserved that.’ That meant a lot, hearing that. I worked so hard for that moment. This year I started to understand the pieces of the puzzle I’m putting together as a swimmer.”
Clesen was an observer, not a participant, at a sectional meet two years ago. A sectional meet is not a normal meet. It’s usually air-horn-blaring-right-behind-your-head loud, and pressure is palpable, everywhere. The stands are packed. Heartbeats jackhammer. Swimmers’ tummies are executing inward somersaults, diving judges nowhere near the pool deck to flash their scores.
Clesen took it all in, watching the races, seeing and hearing the reactions of the racers and the coaches and the spectators.
“You know what she was thinking back then?” Walker, named Sectional Coach of the Year for the seventh time last weekend, said. “She was thinking, If I stay with this, stick with this sport, I could do this, compete in a meet like this. Emily decided, at that meet, Yes, I want to be a part of a meet like this someday. You saw what she did [on Nov. 14]. You saw how well she swam. There is nothing more powerful than the time when a vision is realized.
“She is,” the coach added, “a really good listener, a sponge, the way she absorbs things you tell her.”
Spartans entrants earned five other state berths at the sectional. Qiao and Baxamusa set pool records in back-to-back races, Qiao achieving hers in the 200 IM (2:07.19) and Baxamusa accomplishing the feat in the 50 freestyle (23.69). Former Glenbrook South star and current world-class swimmer Olivia Smoliga, a junior at the University of Georgia Bulldog, had held the previous pool mark in the 200 IM (2:09.51, set in 2012). Qiao has battled shoulder and ankle injuries this fall, plus a persistent cough. She joined Baxamusa, Gilbert and sophomore Natalie Horwitz for a state-qualifying effort in the 400 free relay (3:35.03, fourth place).
Baxamusa took third in the 100 free (state-qualifying 52.21), and Gilbert advanced to state in the 100 butterfly (58.0, third place).
Glenbrook North sophomore Maggie Li medaled in the 100 fly (59.51, sixth place) but did not qualify for state in the event.
The Spartans, third at the CSL North Meet on Nov. 7, finished first among league division schools at the sectional in the home water on Nov. 14. Glenbrook North tallied 161 points (fourth place), ahead of Deerfield (124, fifth), Niles North (85, sixth), CSL North Meet champion Highland Park (57, eighth) and Maine East (3, 13th).
Notable: Glenbrook North coach Robin Walker insists on picking a team motto each season. This year’s: “Trust yourself so others can.” His dream gift, after he retires: a quilt of the team T-shirt (motto included) from each of his Glenbrook North seasons, 23 and counting. … Spartans junior Emily Clesen, on classmate and four-event state qualifier Sabrina Baxamusa, after last weekend’s Glenbrook North Sectional: “She had a stellar meet.”
Glenbrook South
Senior Constance Chrones emerged as the Titans’ lone state qualifier at the Glenbrook North Sectional, advancing with a seventh-place time of 1:06.42 in the 100 breaststroke. She had entered the event with a seed time of 1:08.43.
Chrones swam on Glenbrook South’s seventh-place 200 medley relay at state last year. She also swam a 400 free relay leg at state.
Chrones also swam on a pair of sixth-place relays at last weekend’s sectional in Northbrook. She served as the lead-off leg of the 200 free unit (1:40.66), ahead of freshman Catherine Devine and juniors Allison Wyland and Sam Casey. Chrones, Wyland, Devine and freshman Nomun Saintur combined for a 1:49.27 in the 200 medley relay.
The state meet at New Trier starts on Nov. 20. The diving preliminaries begin at 9 a.m., the swim prelims at 3:30 p.m.