Gatchell Burns Foes With Breaststroke Win

Nina Gatchell hasn’t mastered using a glue gun quite yet and, as a result, the Evanston junior wasn’t sure she’d even be in the lineup for the Evanston Invitational girls swim meet on Saturday.

But Gatchell was able to make her presence felt after all. Out of the water all week after burning her finger creating a school biology project, Gatchell captured the individual title in the 100-yard breaststroke and also helped the ETHS 200 freestyle relay team take top honors.

Vanya Gojakovic added a victory in the 100 backstroke as the Wildkits scored a second place team finish behind Loyola Academy. As usual, the meet was conducted using the NISCA (National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association) scoring standard that awards team points for certain times, not for individual finishes.

Loyola ruled the meet with 4,547 points, followed in order by ETHS (4,012), St. Charles North (3,766), Whitney Young (3,075) and Peoria Notre Dame (1,098).

Gatchell’s return wasn’t exactly the comeback story of the year, although she’ll likely have a scar on her finger as a reminder of what turned into one of her best weekends to date.

But she had to wait for her blister to pop to even have a chance to be included in the starting lineup this weekend.

A two-time state qualifier already in the breaststroke in her career, she eclipsed the Illinois High School Association state qualifying mark Friday at 1:06.7 in a dual meet loss to Maine South. Saturday, she topped the field with a winning effort of 1:07.76 while also combining with Gojakovic, Maddie Baxter and Talia Wexler to win the 200 free relay in 1:40.24, just a couple of seconds shy of the state standard.

“I had a third degree burn on my finger and everyone’s saying ‘that little thing could keep you out of the lineup’? But I couldn’t be in the water with a blister, so all I could do was some kicking (training) and some dryland training,” Gatchell explained.

“It was a really big blister. I didn’t think I’d even be able to swim this weekend. But God heard me and the blister popped on Thursday.”

Gatchell responded by turning in back-to-back performances in the breaststroke that haven’t been matched much by any ETHS swimmer in that event. Meets on consecutive days are rare on the high school schedule but Gatchell rose to the occasion.

“For someone who didn’t swim for four days, that was an impressive performance,” said Evanston head coach Kevin Auger. “Her IM (200 individual medley, 2:15.95) was good, too. To see her racing like this was a big step forward for her.

“Ironically, I think all that kicking she did this week helped her snap her legs and finish her stroke better. It might have actually benefited her to be out of the water. Today we were more focused on her start and she had a really good one. She basically did what she needed to do in the race today.”

Gatchell’s ready to take the next step now. That could mean challenging the ETHS school record of 1:04.59 by Ana Woods back in 2014 while attempting to reach the state finals for the first time, too.

“I was not able to perform the way I wanted to the last two years at State,” she admitted. “I’d like to get into the high or mid 1:03s this year and hopefully make the top five.”

Gatchell joined a group of elite swimmers for an invitation-only camp held in Canada in the summer and picked up a number of tips for tweaking her technique in what is the toughest stroke to master for a swimmer at just about every level.

“I probably had the slowest time of all the girls (about 20) they invited, but it was an amazing experience for me,” she said. “There were five or six different coaches there I got to work with and they all gave me some great drills to help me with my stroke. They helped with a lot of the minor details and also with the mental aspect of it.

“More dryland training has also been a huge factor for me. I’ve never progressed so much before. Now I’m lifting two or three times a week and getting personalized exercises, and that helps me be more locked in.”

Gatchell was in attack mode Saturday, bursting out to a big lead in the breaststroke and defeating runner-up Elle Mesch of Loyola by almost three full seconds.

She also helped the Wildkits score a rare relay win in the mid-season invite that used to draw elite competition before the IHSA moved the state finals to another pool.

“I was definitely in attack mode in that relay,” said the junior who turned in a split of 25.12 to go with Gojakovic’s 24.65, Baxter’s 25.66 and anchor Wexler’s 24.81. “I knew that St. Charles North won the state championship in that race last year and I wasn’t sure who I’d be up against. I didn’t know how fast she’d be, but I thrive on that kind of pressure. That’s when I really get into attack mode.”

Gatchell’s individual progress has come despite a lost connection. The passing of assistant ETHS coach Chuck Fargo last summer definitely had an impact on her.

“He was always a big inspiration for me. We had a close connection,” she said. “You can see on my phone screen it says ‘do it for Chuck.’ He believed in me more than anyone else, and it’s hard not to have him here. His passing has been really hard to take.

“Anything I do (in the future) I want him to be up there smiling, like it’s about time you did this.”

Gojakovic was clocked in 57.59 on the way to her backstroke victory, after placing second in the 200 IM in 2:09.35 to the 2:05.98 turned in by winner Kam Gardiner of Notre Dame.

ETHS also counted top five individual finishes from Wexler (3^rd in the 50 freestyle in 26.02), Cora Kwon (4^th in the 100 freestyle in 57.18), Susannah Keller (4^th in the 500 freestyle in 5:27.86), and Keara Beaudoin (4^th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.88).