Winter is coming, but high school swimmers are just now finishing the season.

Local swimmers from Waterloo and Columbia high schools competed at the IHSA State Sectional hosted by Sacred Heart-Griffin in Springfield this past weekend.

Columbia senior Sydney Rey advanced to the state finals to be held at New Trier High School in Winnetka. Preliminaries are on Friday and finals begin on Saturday.

“I’m very excited,” Rey said. “I had the cut and I was going to go last year, but I had a concussion  prior to the meet, so that messed it up. But I’m really excited that I get to go this year.”

Rey finished in third place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.96 seconds to qualify for state. She also took seventh place in the 200-yard individual medley.

“As far as swimming goes, it’s been a really interesting year,” Rey said. “It’s been one of the best that I have to say. The atmosphere is so positive and all the people that I have around me are just very supportive.”

Rey hopes to continue her swimming career at McKendree University next year.

Columbia’s Grace Fischer, Allie Terveer and Haley Rey also competed at the sectional.

To clarify, the girls can only compete as individuals. Swimming is considered a club sport at Columbia. All four girls swim year-round for the Fast Flyers Aquatic Swim Team of St. Louis as part of USA Swimming.
Fischer finished in eighth place in the 200-yard individual medley and ninth in the 100-yard fly. Haley

Rey finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle and sixth in the 100-yard backstroke.

Coach Jennifer Traube said Terveer set personal bests in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle, but she really helped the relay teams.

“They did a fantastic job. All of them had personal bests or were close to it. Allie was the anchor on both relays and she played a very important role.”

All four girls made up both relay teams and finished with medals. They took sixth in the 200-yard medley and fifth in the 400-yard freestyle.

Waterloo had two individual swimmers in the sectional. Waterloo swimmers, like Columbia, must compete as individuals.

Junior Janie Kehrer finished 23rd in the 100-yard freestyle. She took 22nd in the 100-yard butterfly.

“I did OK, but I think I could have done better,” Kehrer said. “I was kind of out of it by the last lap of the butterfly. I couldn’t really breathe.”

She did have a personal best in the butterfly. She has been swimming for eight years.

“I really do like swimming,” Kehrer said. “I like seeing how good I’ve gotten from the beginning up until now.”

Sophomore Remy Heinen took 29th in the 100-yard backstroke. She also finished 19th in the 200-yard individual medley.

Her favorite event is the 100-yard backstroke.

“I hold a record for it down in Sparta,” Heinen said. She swims for the Sparta Country Club Sharks. Kehrer swims for the Waterloo Piranhas.

“Considering we didn’t have much practice time and Remy has only had two times in the water since July, Janie was out much of October with a knee injury, I would say they both did pretty good,” coach Victoria Kehrer said. “They both came close to their personal bests in the strokes that they did. I’m proud of them and I hope next year when they return that they’ll do even better.”

Coach Kehrer, who is also Janie’s mom, said the team is always looking for more swimmers. She said they would like to have enough to field a relay team in the future.