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It’s early within the 2026 ladies swim and dive season, however issues are already getting heated within the pool.
And with a key portion of the season arising, the most effective groups and athletes are about to step out.
“We’re pretty loaded,” stated Adam Gura, the top coach of one of many high Rockford-area packages, the Byron co-op. “We’ve been swimming really strong as a team already, so we’re ready.”
Byron is seeking to clear a path to its third straight Rockford-area sectional title in ladies swim and dive, however the NIC-10 groups are looking for a strategy to put a halt to that as we hit an essential stretch of invitationals for the 2026 season. Byron is on hearth early on, although, successful its first three twin meets of the season by over 100 factors every.
“We’ve got our Big 3 who are doing it all for us,” Gura stated. “But we have a lot of girls that are swimming good. A lot.”
Byron’s Big 3 is the coaches’ daughter Lucy Gura, a breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke specialist; Nora Schneiker and Nora Schearer, two freestyle stars who’re onerous to beat of their occasions. But throw in IM’ers Madelyn Capelland and Mikayla Ford; distance star Ryan Smith; and again and freestyler Abby Krueger, and that is the deepest crew round.
But they are going to be pushed at occasions.
“Byron definitely has a lot of talent, and they have to be favored going into sectionals,” Hononegah head coach Brian McGuire stated. “But we should be solid by the time we get there, so we’ll see… There are some strong swimmers in the NIC-10, too.”
Hononegah’s Peyton Hillabolt was named the Harlem’s Dave Logterman Invitational MVP final weekend, and her teammate Avery Lovejoy has had a robust begin to this season as nicely. Hono is anticipated to be not less than one of many groups attempting to trace down Byron.
And the primary likelihood for that to occur is in Saturday’s 12-team Hononegah Invitational, beginning at 9 a.m. on the Jefferson High School pool.
This is when the invitational season actually kicks in. After the Hono invite comes the Rosary Invitational on Sept. 26; the Jefferson J-Hawk invite on Oct. 3; the East Moline United Township Invitational on Oct. 11; after which the Deerfield invite on Oct. 18. The NIC-10 meet will kick off the postseason on Oct. 24.
As we hit the important thing stretches of the season, listed below are a few of the Rockford space’s high swimmers to look at this season:
Top dozen Rockford-area swimmers, divers to look at
- Nora Carlson, Guilford (IM; breaststroke)
- Lucy Gura, Byron (100 breast; 100 butterfly; 100 backstroke)
- Eden Helm, Freeport (100 breast; 100 fly)
- Peyton Hillabolt, Hono (freestyle; 100 fly)
- Allie Hodge, Boylan (100 fly)
- Maddy Kiley, Boylan (diving)
- Avery Lovejoy, Hono (100 breast; IM; 100 fly)
- Eleanor Powell, Auburn (diving)
- Emma Reichwald, Boylan (100 again)
- Nora Schneiker, Byron (free)
- Nora Schearer, Byron (free)
- Nadia Vilic, East (free; 100 breast)
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports activities reporter. Email him at [email protected] and join for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter right here at rrstar.com. Jay has lined a wide range of sports activities, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to native youth sports activities, for the reason that flip of the century on the Register Star.
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