Lyons Township High School girls swimming and diving team senior standouts Audrey Cavaliere, Ella Jean Kelly and Lauren Jablonski gladly shared the spotlight Saturday with head coach Scott Walker. As the seniors added to their all-state success at the state finals, this also was the final state meet for the retiring Walker, who has coached the Lions since 1994.
“I think it had us swimming for something bigger than ourselves,” Cavaliere said. “Coach Walker has had such a big impact on the program. Yes we’re graduating, but so is someone who has left such a big legacy so it’s an honor to be in his graduating class. I think the team is going to miss him tremendously.”
The Lions gave Walker a great sendoff by finishing fifth (146 points) at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont behind seven school-record performances Saturday and Friday, including the 200-yard freestyle relay twice.
“We knew for a while we were going to be his last class,” Kelly said. “I feel like every year we’ve just kept building and building and getting faster and faster. It’s really shone with our relays because we work so well together as a team.”
Lyons Township’s Maeve Collins competes in the 100 Yard Butterfly during the IHSA Girls’ State Final meet Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 in Westmont. | Steve Johnston 
Lyons Township’s Audrey Cavaliere competes in the 100 Yard Freestyle during the IHSA Girls’ State Final meet Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 in Westmont. | Steve Johnston
As usual, the relays led the way. The 200 medley relay of junior Kylie Thompson (backstroke), Jablonski (breast stroke), junior Maeve Collins (butterfly) and Cavaliere (free) finished third (1:43.04).
The 200 free relay of Cavaliere, Jablonski, junior Anna Pansing and Kelly (school-record 1:33.21) and 400 free relay of Cavaliere, Collins, Pansing and Kelly (3:25.09) both were fourth. Collins was fifth in the 100 fly (55.34) and Jablonski was eighth in the 100 breast (1:04.12).
Earning honorable mention all-state were junior Lindsay Forebaugh in the 100 fly (tied for 10th, 56.66), Kelly, who was 11th in the 50 free (23.46) and 100 breast (1:04.55), and junior Dylan Jorgensen in the 200 individual medley (13th, 2:07.72).
Top-eight finishers in Friday’s swimming preliminaries competed for the state title Saturday. The next eight finishers competed for ninth place.
“Couldn’t ask for better relays. I think we did a really great job,” Jablonski said. “There was a lot of emotion (for us). You could feel it in the air. It was pretty heavy. I think we performed as well as we could. There were a lot of fast girls and everyone kept getting faster and faster. We tried our best, threw everything into the pool.”
The Lions, fourth at state in 2023 with 156.5 points, hoped to contend for the program’s second top-three trophy but state champion Rosary (290), New Trier (272) and St. Charles North (251) dominated. Stevenson (176) was fourth.
The Lions were third in 1995. Walker, who also coached the LTHS boys team to their two state titles in 2015 and 2016, last season was an assistant boys coach at Fenwick as Spencer Walker, his son, became head coach. Walker plans to continue coaching youth swimmers for the Lyons Swim Club.
“Extremely [emotional], very. It’s already an emotional weekend as a coach because you’re not only riding off what we did back in conference but what we did to prepare for [sectionals and state],” Walker said.
“[Our athletes] just gave every single ounce of energy, anything that they had. I couldn’t be happier with a bunch of kids that just put forth so much dedication, time commitment and watch them leave it all in the water.”
The 200 free relay broke their school-record 1:33.61 in prelims after a record 1:33.75 at sectionals Nov. 9. The 400 free relay’s 3:24.45 Friday broke their 3:25.73 record from sectionals. The medley relay (1:42.90) set the seventh school record this season at sectionals.
Pansing joined the free relays and competed at her first state meet.
“It was really cool just having this amazing team to get me through,” Pansing said. “This year, getting to be a part of it, was awesome.”
In the 100 fly, Collins improved upon her all-state seventh from 2023 (55.06). She again broke that school record Friday with 55.04.
“I kind of knew what to expect more and embraced the atmosphere and high energy better. We all just feed off each other,” Collins said. “(The seniors) are such great leaders and role models and we just look up to them. Especially with Walker leaving, we have to follow in their footsteps to lead the team.”
The medley relay (1:42.90) broke the school record at sectionals with the same lineup that took fourth at state last year (1:44.34).
“We all came together and did it,” Thompson said. “We get a different feeling each year, not because some of the people are different. But we also have gotten better in the offseason. It’s exciting to see what we did this year.”
Also in prelims, Jablonski’s 1:03.56 in the 100 breast broke her school-record 1:03.96 from sectionals. Cavaliere’s 50.43 in the 100 free broke her 50.77 school record from 2023 and her 23.16 on the opening leg of the 200 free relay broke Kelly’s 50 free school record of 23.33 from 2023.
Cavaliere (Illinois), Kelly (Iowa) and Jablonski (Bowling Green) will all swim collegiately.
“I’m so excited to see what the team does next year,” Kelly said.
On Friday, sophomore diver Brynn Krantz was 17th (311.55 points for 8 dives), 3.40 points from a berth in the finals. Krantz was 47th in 2023.
Thompson (5:06.19) and Forebaugh (5:07.29) were 19th and 21st in the 500 free. Pansing was 20th in the 200 free (1:53.06) and 24th in the 100 free (52.51), Jablonski (50 free in 24.01) was 22nd and freshman diver Maeve Comes (201.65 for 5 dives) was 26th.
Nazareth sophomore diver Ellie Fleischmann (198.45 for 5 dives) was 32nd.
