Jensen Keck wasn’t sure if she’d reached her year-long goal of qualifying for the state meet for a few seconds after she touched the wall in the 100-yard breaststroke at the St. Charles North Sectional last weekend.

The DeKalb-Sycamore co-op freshman knew she had a shot at the state qualifying time of 1:08.22 when she touched the wall halfway through the race in 35 seconds, using the stroke she perfected with hours of hard work over the summer with former DeKalb swimmer Grace Waller.

But the delay on the scoreboard – estimated at 10 or 15 seconds – was agonizing.