Charleston’s Angela Coe twice earned third-place finishes at the IHSA state swimming championships Saturday – by far the best performance ever by any local swimmer in this meet.

Coe, a junior, took third in one of the fastest 200 individual medley races in Illinois prep history. Kaneland Maple Park sophomore Leah Hayes shattered the state record by nearly 4 seconds in 1 minute, 56.38 seconds. Coe finished .13 seconds out of second place and only 1.87 seconds off the previous state mark in 2:02.00.

Coe then took third behind another record-setting performance in the 100 butterfly finals. Deerfield High sophomore Annika Parkhe eclipsed the previous mark by .09 seconds. Coe took third, just .44 seconds out of second and 1.53 seconds back of Parkhe in 54.53 seconds. Coe had post the second best 100 fly time in preliminaries at 54.20.

Coe’s best time in these events are1:59.81 in the 200 IM and 53.00 in the fly, each clocked during a YMCA swimming festival last April.

“Angie did a great job this weekend,” Charleston girls swim coach Dwight Pentzien said. “There is a ton of pressure at this meet.  Preliminaries are Friday.  In order to make finals, you need to place in the top six. The races are all so tight there is little room for error.”

Angie Coe competing in the 200-yard individual medley final on Saturday.

Charleston finished 16th overall with 24 points. Unlike other sports, Illinois groups all schools into a single classification. The top three schools have between 2,500-4,000 students apiece – roughly three to five times more students than attend Charleston High.

Coe had qualified for these two state events after winning two races in Urbana last week and helping Charleston post its best sectional showing in school history – placing second to just miss out on its first-ever sectional championship.

“I know she (Coe) would have liked to have improved on her personal best times this weekend, but she was not able to train as consistently as she normally would this season,” Pentzien said. “She had several college recruiting visits that took her out of the pool.  Despite that, her times were still very good in two of the most physically demanding races in high school swimming.  I think having this experience under our belt will help us as we plan for next year.”

Coe has verbally committed to swim at the University of Texas. The national swimming website SwimSwam expects that Coe “will be an immediate impact player for the Longhorns.”