Smartphone Gives Lake Forest Diver Good News About State Meet

As Christine Anderson sat having dinner with her swim teammates last Saturday night, she clutched her cellphone.

“I kept hitting refresh, refresh, refresh, all day long,” Anderson said, describing how she kept checking her smartphone for online results from the other 15 sectional meets that day. “When the last sectional came in I was so excited.”

That's because for the first time in five years, Lake Forest will have a diver at state. Anderson's 378.90 point total at Saturday's sectional at Vernon Hills High School — which earned her fifth place — gave her one of 32 at-large tickets to this weekend's state meet at New Trier High School in Winnetka. Only sectional diving champions qualified automatically.

to help Lake Forest push for a top five finish among Illinois’ top teams. 

, who hopes to swim for a state title in the 200-yard individual medley and 100 butterfly, was sitting next to Anderson at dinner. Hlavin said she felt confident for her friend, but tried not to let on. 

“She was close a year ago and she is a year better,” Hlavin said of Anderson. “She kept hitting her phone, but I knew she would make it.” 

Putting Technology to Work

Refreshing her cellphone to learn if she qualified for the state meet is not the only technology Anderson uses when it comes to diving. The Lake Forest High School pool is equipped with a TIVO digital taping system so she can review each dive. 

“It’s so important,” Anderson said of being able to review her dives visually. “It’s one thing to hear the coach’s comments and another to see it myself. If I don’t understand, we can go over it in slow motion.” 

Diving coach Pam Uhrik considers the video review just one part of Anderson’s work ethic. According to Uhrik, Anderson works at a dive repeatedly until she gets as close to perfection as she can. 

“She’s the hardest-working diver I’ve ever coached,” Uhrik said. “She will do a dive as many times as it takes. I don’t have to tell her to do it over and over again.” 

Anderson will dive Friday, hoping to make the top 16, who will dive again Saturday. That number eventually will be narrowed to the final 12 to compete for a medal Saturday.

Swimmers Face Friday Prelims First

Her teammates will be going through the same qualifying heats on Friday, hoping their times place them possibly in the top six.

Only one, , enters the state meet as a top seed in both the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle by a wide margin. 

Stoehr’s sectional time in the 500 freestyle of 4:49.32 was 10 seconds faster than the second-rated qualifier. That time was just over two seconds off the state record. Her 1:48.87 clocking in the 200 freestyle is 1.7 seconds shy of the state mark.

Stoehr wants a pair of gold medals but is trying to put the records out of her head. 

“I know the competition will be tough and I’ll go as fast as I can. I’m prepared for tough competition that we don’t see that often,” Stoehr said. “We’ll see what happens."

Finish Among State's Elite?

A pair of first-place finishes from Stoehr is part of plan to propel the Scouts to a top-five team finish.

“Reaching fifth place is realistic,” Grevers said. “If everything goes right, I would like to hold the third-place trophy.” 

Capturing team hardware will require medals from the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams, the high seeds meeting expectations and a little more.

“The second swimmers will have to step up,” Grevers said.