Lane edges out Young to carry house women swimming metropolis title

By Noah Poser

After profitable the diving occasion Friday, Lane Tech capped the swimming portion of the town championship meet on Saturday, Oct. 25 with a victory within the 400-yard freestyle relay to clinch the 2025 Girls Swimming and Diving Chicago Public League Championship.

Lane edged out Young by simply 5 factors, 312-307, within the Dolphins’ house pool, however the true margin was even slimmer.

The meet was determined by simply 0.16 seconds, a fraction over one-tenth of a second, as that was the distinction between Lane and Young in Saturday’s opening occasion: the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Young, final yr’s winner, was defeated by Lane’s quartet of Rheya Ciesla, Olivia DeLory, Gabby McCracken and Layla Miglietta. Miglietta’s hand touched the wall simply forward of Young’s Joy Cheng.

The nail-biting end set the tone for the remainder of the meet.

“This whole week, we heard the back and forth of ‘Oh, who’s going to win? Us or Whitney Young.’” McCracken stated. “Winning the primary relay was actually essential as a result of relays are a number of factors. It turned out to be actually shut and actually thrilling. We didn’t know if we may do it as a result of everybody they’ve – Briana (Mingmuang), Jaslyn (Wu), Joy (Cheng) – is so quick.

“I knew my teammates were relying on me to catch up for the fly. Briana got that huge lead on the backstroke, so I had to lock in and be there for my team. I was really happy we got the win, because it lifted everyone’s morale and spirits to start the meet.”

Lane gained 5 occasions total: diving, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 100-yard butterfly (gained by McCracken), the 100-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Young gained seven occasions, however Lane made up the distinction with yet one more silver and 5 extra bronze medals, and by flipping the outcome within the opening relay.

The effort left first-year head coach Julie Levey almost speechless, although that will have had extra to do together with her celebratory dive (or push) into the pool.

“This just confirms that we’ve had a great season so far and that we’re right where we should be,” Levey stated. “It means I was put in this position for a reason and that I got hired for a reason, and I’m so very grateful and proud of every one of those girls.”

Other winners for Lane included sophomore Rory McCann within the 100-yard freestyle and Claire Lokken in diving. DeLory and Miglietta had been additionally a part of the profitable 400-yard freestyle relay group.

Despite falling in need of a 3rd straight metropolis title, Young had a number of standout performances, as sophomores Cheng and Mingmuang every gained a number of particular person occasions. Cheng gained the 200 and 500-yard freestyle and Mingmuaung positioned first within the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard particular person medley. Both had been additionally a part of the 200-yard freestyle relay profitable group. 

They share one other distinction as nicely.

Both set Chicago Public League data – Cheng within the 500-yard freestyle and Mingmuang within the 100-yard backstroke.

“I don’t know what to say,” Cheng stated after breaking the document. “That was really big. It was really cool. Last year it wasn’t even close. I lost by a lot, and I just wanted one really good, really close race that I could win against her.”

And it was a extremely good, actually shut race, as she defeated Miglietta, the defending champion, by lower than half a second.

Mingmuang’s document got here in dominant trend, breaking a CPL mark that had stood for 12 years. The earlier document holder, Lane’s Meghan Lavelle, went on to set the University of Iowa college document in the identical occasion.

“It feels really good,” Mingmuan stated. “I was not expecting to hit 55, so I was really happy about that. I wasn’t even expecting to get a personal best time here, so I’m really excited.”

On breaking the long-standing document of such an achieved collegiate swimmer:

“That’s pretty cool,” she stated. “I’m excited for the future and what’s to come. I still have a lot of people that are faster than me though, so I’ll keep my eye on them and try to keep up.”

While Young’s swimmers shined individually, just one group may take house the title, and on today, it was Lane. The win leaves the Champions in a powerful place heading into sectionals.

But first, they celebrated.

“We’re going to Chinatown after this,” McCann stated in the course of the meet. “It would be really nice to celebrate with all the parents and all the swimmers and coaches. With it being Coach Julie’s first year here, it would be her first city title, so I’m excited to try and secure the win so we can all celebrate.”

Thanks to McCann and her teammates, they had been capable of just do that.

Results from 2025 Girls Swimming City Championship Meet

Diving: Claire Lokken (Lane) – 368.24 pts

200-yard medley relay: Lane (Rheya Ciesla, Olivia DeLory, Gabby McCracken, Layla Miglietta) – 1:41.71

200-yard freestyle: Joy Cheng (Young) – 1:53.62

200-yard IM: Briana Mingmuang (Young) – 2:08.46

50-yard freestyle: Sophie Chin (Young) – 25.31

100-yard butterfly: McCracken – 57.13

100-yard freestyle: Rory McCann (Lane) – 54.11

500-yard freestyle: Cheng – 4:54.81***

200-yard freestyle relay: Young (Jaslyn Wu, Mingmuang, Chin, Cheng) – 1:38.19

100-yard backstroke: Mingmuang – 55.21***

100-yard breaststroke: Gianna Dinh (Young) – 1:07.57

400-yard freestyle relay: Lane (McCann, DeLory, Lidia Maybury, Miglietta) – 3:38.84

***Pool document, metropolis championship meet document and league document

Diving Photos by Shawn Richardson, Amundsen (IG: snapsby_shawn)

Swimming Photos by Zoe Davis/OSA