North Cook News

At its Jan. 9 Board of Trustees meeting, the Village of Barrington welcomed Jenna Kerr and her family to recognize the student's notable accomplishments during her swimming season.

Kerr is a senior at Barrington High School and will be swimming for the University of Iowa after graduation. Trustee Todd Shollen read a proclamation commending her for her performance at the Iowa State Swim Championship in the girls' 500-meter freestyle event, in which she won first place. 

“Congratulations, Jenna, and your family,” Board President Karen Darch said. “I'm sure everybody's so proud. That is just an amazing, amazing accomplishment. And the best part of this is you don't have to stay for the rest of the meeting!”

Kerr started swimming at a local youth club in Barrington because it’s what her two older brothers did. Even at a young age, her coaches said she had great talent, with a natural ease in freestyle that just kept improving. She kept up that performance at the state championship in November where she won the girls' 500 freestyle with a school and pool record time of 4:46.30. Her preliminary time the day before had been nine seconds ahead of the runner-up, but she pushed to go even faster in the final just in case someone had been holding back.

Kerr had no reason to fear, beating the second-place swimmer by more than 11 seconds—a significant gap, especially in a state championship event. She also placed second in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:47.62. She and her teammates Lauren Holman, Estella Brockway and Sophia Lin teamed up to earn tenth place in the 400-freestyle relay.

The board invited Kerr to the front of the room to congratulate her by shaking her hand and giving her a certificate of the proclamation. They also took some pictures before wishing her and her family well as she continues with swimming career.