The Huntley Farmside

              Huntley School News — page 4 Senior Scene — page 12
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The HimfleY Farmside
Thursday, March 12,1998
*A Press Publications newspaper im serving the Huntley community
Volume 37 Issue 48
SWIMMERS QUALIFY FOR STATE
By Laraine Smith and  Carolyn Leger	
Three Huntley children swim on the DeKalb County Swim Team. Their names are Simone Leger, Alison Smith, and Travers Smith. The Northwest District YMCA Swimming Championships took place March 7 and 8 in DeKalb. Ten teams partici¬ pated from this district. In order to go to State, teams must qualify with certain time standards at the district meet or come in first in indi¬ vidual events.
Simone and Travers qual¬ ified for the State meet, which will be held next weekend at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. Travers will swim on Saturday in the 12-and-under age group, and Simone will swim on Sunday in the 13- and-over age group.
The DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) program has been in existence since 1980. It is part of the Kishwaukee YMCA and is also a member of United States Swinmiing Inc. (USS). The coach is Brian Bickner, who works with several assis¬ tant coaches.
The winter program runs from October through April, and the summer program runs from May to August.
Practice for these swimmers is five days per week with two-to three-hour practices, approximately 8,000 yards per practice.
There are various age groups within the program, ranging from early elemen
Pictured from left to right: Simone Leger, Travis Smith & Alison Smith
tary to early post-high school with various practice amounts.
Alison swam at district and placed eighth in her 200 IM, seventh in her 100 Fly and seventh in her 100 Back. Simone placed third in her 100 Back, third in her 500 Free and swam on relay, plac¬ ing third. Travers placed first in his 50 Free, first place in his 100 Free, first place in his 50 Back, and swam one relay placing third. Travers broke three district records in his events.
Also, Friday and Sunday, Travers swam at Illinois State Age Group Swimming Championships, which is sanctioned by United States Swimming. Another name for the meet is Junior Olympics it took place at the University of Illinois Chicago. This is a huge three day swim meet, consisting of more than 80 USS teams. There are certain age group time standards to enter the meet. Travers qualified for
nine individual events. He was able to attend two of the days, he swam in five events and made finals in two events.
Another exciting part of swimming is qualifying for Nationals. Simone will swim at Nationals in April in relays.
YMCA Nationals sre open to those swimmers 12 and over that meet the time standards for individual or relay events. This year. Nationals will be held in Fort Lauderdale, at the
Intemational Swimming Hall of Fame. This facility has two side-by-side eight lane open-air pools with men and women competing at the same time in separate pools. The deck is very busy with a festive air filled with all the team banners, officials, coaches and swimmers in their bright swim suits, caps, towels and warm-ups. It is an exciting time for swimmers and spectators alike with opening     and     closing
ceremonies, preliminary swimming in the morning and finals at night.
The DeKalb swim team has a chance to send 12 swimmers this year to Nationals. Five of these swimmers are retuming for at least a second time, including Simone. Four DeKalb swim¬ mers will compete in individ¬ ual  events,   and  the  other
DeKalb swimmers will par¬ ticipate on relays.
The DCST program mis¬ sion is to foster children's enjoyment of swimming as a life-long activity and sport by promoting individual skill improvement and achieve¬ ment of personal goals through participation with other children within a frame work of fun and friendship.
PAULSEN AWARDED 1998 LiliCOI.N SERIES FELLOWSHIP
Su^anne     Paulsen     of   Illinois State University in
Huntley is one of 15 Republican women awarded a 1998 Illinois Lincoln Series FeUowship, Paulsen is a real estate assistant and trustee for the VUlage of Huntley.
The Republican program for women leaders is spon¬ sored by the lUinois Lincoln Excellence in Public Service Series, Inc., a non-profit political education organiza¬ tion that helps prepare women for policy-making positions in government and in the Republican Party.
"The Republican Party and government need more women like Suzanne Paulsen, who has already proven her leadership abili¬ ties as a trustee in Huntley," noted Republican National Committeewomen Maty Jo Amdt, who also serves on the Lincoln Series Board of CiOvemors.
Paulsen is an active vol¬ unteer for the Hantley Economic Development Corpor^on and received her two Bachelor's degrees from
Normal. She was selected from a large field of statewide applicants to become a 1998 Lincoln Fellow,
The fellowship program is a series of nine seminars with national and state lead- ets, including three days in Washignton, D.C. and two two-day meetings in Springfield. Graduatiott cer¬ emonies for the Class of 1998 will be held at the earnvsi Excellence Awards Dinner on Sept. IL
The Lincoln Series was founded in 1994 by the National Committeewoiaa»*& Roundtable, a unit club of the niinois Federation of Republican Women.
Applications for the Class of 1999 will be available July 1 by writing to HlJnoJS Lincoln Series, 127 W. Aurora Ave.^ Naperville, IL 60540.
The program is open to all women who have vot^ in at least two Republican pri¬ mary elections.
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