Charleston’s Coe wins 2 events to qualify for state swimming

Angela Coe qualified for two state events after winning two races and Charleston High posted its best sectional showing in school history – placing second to just miss out on its first-ever sectional championship.

CHS coach Dwight Pentzien, meanwhile, was named the IHSA sectional swim coach of the year.

Coe, a junior, captured the 200 individual medley by more than 8 seconds in 2 minutes, 1.72 seconds and then set the Urbana Aquatic Center pool record to win the 100 butterfly by almost 4 seconds in 54.63 seconds.

“We had an amazing day,” said Pentzien. “Seventeen personal bests out of 28 swims. I believe that looking through sectional results, Angie (Coe) will be the top qualifier in 100 fly and third in 200 IM for the State meet.”

Coe also teamed with Mackenzie Erixon, Ava Zheng and Molly Weber on a 200 medley relay team that just missed going to the state meet, losing to Champaign Central by 2.25 seconds.

Coe, Zheng, Erixon and Weber were within 3.79 seconds of heading to state in the 400 free as well. Three swimmers posted PRs, including Coe who dropped a 49.81-second 100-yard leg as anchor.

“I could not be more pleased with the way our relays and individual swims went,” said Pentzien. “Going into the meet, I thought we had a chance to contend for second place as a team and thought there was an outside possibility of winning the 200 medleys and 400 free relays and qualifying for state in those events. We were able to move up a few spots in some of our races with some great swims to secure the second-place team finish. All of our relays swam faster than our goal times for today, but we fell short, placing second in those two relays to a very strong Champaign Central team. Angie Coe swam well, winning and qualifying for state in both the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly. She will be among the favorites in both of those events this Friday and Saturday.”

Weber placed third in the 500 free 5:49.79, a second better than her all-time best, while teammate Delany Goddard dropped 7 seconds off her PR to finish seventh.

The 200-free relay combo of Jessica Hoh, Katrina Hoferer, Delaney Goddard and Erixon took fifth.

In the 200 free, Erixon dropped 5 seconds and Weber dropped 7 seconds from their previous personal bests to place fourth and fifth, respectively.

Hoh dropped 4.7 seconds in the 100 free to go from a 13th seed to finish 10th. In the 100 backstroke, Hoh dropped 3 seconds and Hoferer finished with a personal-best in finishing eighth and ninth, respectively.

TEAM RESULTS