Surrounded by dozens of LT fans donned in matching gold shirts, the LT boys swim and dive team leaped into the pool at Evanston Township High School, with one special item hoisted proudly above their heads: the state championship trophy.

Not only had the team won state by a decisive margin of 24 points over runner-up Naperville Central, but it was the first time in history that LT had won the state swim meet, head coach Scott Walker said.

“Nobody was going to swim for themselves,” Coach Walker said. “[They were going to] swim for [their] teammates, for [their] team, for [their] school, and for the guys that swam here 10 years ago that set the standards and expectations. We quit thinking about ourselves and started swimming for one another.”

Qualifying swimmers in all events at state but one, LT headed into the preliminary competition at state on Friday, Feb. 26 with an arsenal of competitive individual swimmers and top-ranked relays, as well as diver Seamus Scotty ‘17. By the end of prelims, the stage had been set for finals on Saturday: LT had qualified 11 entries to return and compete, including all three relays. The breadth of swimmers returning to swim finals gave LT an edge; the more swimmers and relays who qualify for finals, the more opportunity there is to score a large number of points.

“Our team was the best team at the state meet because we had depth,” swimmer Spencer Walker ‘18 said. “We would go head-to-head in a race with another possible contender in the meet and then we would have another race right after — that just kept stacking up the points.”

The 200-medley relay (Spencer, Weston Credit ’16, Henry Claesson ‘18, Ryan Hammond ‘17) began the meet with a strong start, finishing second in the state with a time of 1:32.81. The momentum continued as Chris Phillips ‘16 (fifth; 1:52.21) and Credit (seventh; 1:51.81) earned points in the 200 IM before Hammond (ninth; 21.51) finished the first third of the meet with a strong showing in the 50 free.

“We just wanted to score as much as possible,” Phillips said.

With diving, Scotty had the opportunity to rack up a number of points for LT. By placing fifth in state with 459.75 points, he not only greatly contributed to the team’s win, but also had the opportunity to compete against multiple extremely competitive divers.

“One of the best experiences of the entire season, behind lifting up the first place trophy, was listening to the fans yelling my name,” Scotty said. “[They were] supporting me at my best dives and at my worst dives.”

Continuing into the back half of the meet, Claesson placed 10th in the 100 free (46.54), before Spencer placed eighth in the 500 free (4:35.16). The 200-free relay (Hammond, Ben Breitenbucher ‘16, Matt Linden ‘17, Claesson) placed third with a time of 1:24.14.

“As a team, our one goal was just to win your heat,” swimmer Ben Johnston ‘17 said. “We knew that if you could that, then you could pretty much do anything.”

Following the strong finishes by Spencer in the 100 back (sixth; 51.07), and Credit (fourth; 56.24) and Phillips (eighth; 57.69) in the 100 breaststroke, the team was on par to win the entire state championship — and become the first team to win the state title without ever winning a single event, Coach Walker said.

“I had the guys holding their exchanges [so] that we didn’t lose a relay because of a false start,” Coach Walker said. “I’d rather lose a battle, and win the war.”

Heading into the last event — the 400-free relay — LT was ahead marginally and would capture the state title so long as the relay got in the water and finished. Not only did LT get in the pool, but the relay (Hammond, Breitenbucher, Credit, Claesson; 3:04.71) ended up winning the individual state title.

“I told them about the story 15 years ago in the same pool [when] Oak Park was winning by the same amount of points as we were,” Coach Walker said. “All they had to do was fall in the water and finish, and they would’ve won, [but] their lead off guy moved and so they got disqualified. They went from first to fourth, and didn’t even come out with a trophy. I just told the [relay] to make sure they watched their teammates touch, and then go, but then they turned around and won it.”

Ultimately, the team came out on top over other strong contenders such as Peoria Notre Dame, Naperville Central and defending state champion Hinsdale Central.

“I’m proud to be a Lion; I’m proud of our aquatics program, the school and the community,” Coach Walker said. “We wrote history.”