By Ira Josephs - Inquirer Suburban Staff

Mary Skonicki isn't daydreaming, she's visualizing.   While the Archbishop Wood senior may be staring blankly as she waits at a traffic light, her arms and legs are splashing through imaginary water. She sees each race before she swims it, and the result usually is favorable in her mind and in the pool.   Before big meets, I'll start two weeks in advance visualizing races," she said.   "When you visualize, it makes it so much easier.   "Usually, it will be before I go to bed.   But I'll visualize when I'm driving.   I'll pay attention to the road, but my mind is occupied."   Both Skonicki's driving and swimming records are stellar.   As a junior last year, she won the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle races in the Catholic League championships and also swam on Wood's victorious 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay teams.   As a sophomore, she had won league titles in the 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke and had swum on the winning 200 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams.   Don't suggest that Skonicki is a freestyle specialist who just dabbles in other strokes.   She is a threat in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly.   She has gone under a minute in the 100-yard butterfly.   "I'd say I'm a freestyler first, then the backstroke, and then the butterfly," she said.   "They're all pretty close.   It changes every year.   One year it's the backstroke, and another year it's the freestyle or the butterfly.   I'll do anything.   It's always been that way."   Skonicki would even swim the breaststroke, if she were asked.   That's not likely, though.   The Vikings have Carol Crouthamel, a senior who has qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in the 200-meter breaststroke.   "That's all for her," Skonicki joked.   "She can take it."   Wood coach Charlie Stillwell says he is fortunate to have Skonicki and Crouthamel as part of talented and tenacious senior class.   "The group of seniors I have is killer," Stillwell said.   "We'll never have another class like this.   It's going to be sad when they go."   Though Crouthamel has reached the highest level of any of the Vikings, Skonicki may be the team's best all-around swimmer.   "She is one of a kind," Stillwell said.   "She is just so good at anything, and you can put her anywhere.   She excels at so much that sometimes she goes unnoticed.   "I'll put her in events that will be real close and where we'll need to count on her.   That's the type of person she is. She'll go out and win.  "She'll accept the challenge: 'Give me the ball.   I'm ready to go.'   It's great for the team."   Skonicki grew up in Farmington Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb.   She began swimming at age 5 and was competing at age 6.   Her family moved to Doylestown when Skonicki was 8, and she began swimming for Fanny Chapman's swim team in the summer and for the Central Bucks Aquatic Club in the winter.   She was coached by John Wilson, now coach at Pennsbury.   "It was a really good experience," she said.   "I got more serious about swimming and made a lot of new friends."   As a freshman at Wood three years ago, Skonicki was a frequent contributor for the Vikings.   "I had so much fun," she said.   "It opened me up to my high school, and everybody was so friendly and accepting."   Skonicki remained a member of Wood's team in her sophomore year but began training with Team Foxcatcher, the elite club based at Germantown Academy and directed by Dick Shoulberg.   "I improved a lot, and I practiced a lot more," she said.   "It was a really intense program.   I had fun there."   After one year, Skonicki switched her club affiliation to Spirit Swimming, which practices under Bob Platt at George School.   She said there wasn't enough room at GA for all the high school and club swimmers, so she and her sister Theresa, who is now a sophomore at Wood, joined Spirit.   "I needed somewhere to practice," she said.   "I was friends with [Crouthamel], and she said I could practice at Spirit if I wanted to.   "We didn't expect to stay, but I just loved it there.   I fit in with all the people, and at the end of the season, we decided we would stay."   Skonicki rises before 5 for morning workouts and also practices on Saturdays.   Although she won't hit her peak until the Eastern championships, scheduled for the last weekend in February at La Salle University, she already has reached personal bests this season of 24.72 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, 53.56 in the 100-yard freestyle, 59.80 in the 100-yard butterfly, and 1 minute, 54.78 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle.   "I'm expecting to improve," she said.   "I've definitely raised my intensity.   The intensity is increasing and getting to the point where I'm doing well and want to continue."   Finding a place to continue swimming won't be a problem.   Skonicki is ranked ninth in her class of more than 300 and is a member of the National Honor Society and the World Language Honor Society.   She is the assistant editor of the Wood yearbook.   Her top college choice is Penn.   "She's very smart, very intelligent, overall just a very nice kid," Stillwell said.   "She knows what she wants to do and goes after it."

Monday, January 10, 2000