Girls swim and dive season has officially begun and the girls are looking forward to another strong season after coming in sixth at state last year. The top finishers were: Callahan Dunn ‘20 placed second in the girls 500 yard freestyle, Grace Prendergast ‘19 came in fifth in the girls 100 yard backstroke, and the girls 200 freestyle relay including Eleanor Mcmeen ‘21, Mary Kate Gannon ‘19, Eleanor Tuerk ‘20 and Dunn placed fourth.

“The team has a great chance of winning conference, sectionals and a very realistic chance of finishing in the top three at the state level,” head coach Kurt Johns said.

He added that the girls swim and dive team hasn’t placed in the top three at state since 1995.

“It would be amazing to win state this year. All of our hard work would pay off,” Megan Mitchell ‘20 said.

With six to seven new girls on varsity the team is all about preparing, both mentally and physically.

“The team sets goals every year. About a week into the season the girls create individual goals and talk about how they can lead to team success,” Johns said.

The team practices twice a day on every weekday with the exception of Wednesdays. Practicing multiple times a day consumes a great deal of the girls’ time.

“It’s really hard to have to try to focus on swim when I’m taking AP classes and want to have a social life too,” Kerry Conneely ‘20 said.

The team’s biggest weakness is struggling to balance the time commitment of both school and the sport. Swimming tends to get more difficult further into the season because of the increased workload and the assignments for which the girls have to stay after school.

“The girls have to make some sacrifices socially and academically to be able to make it work,” Johns said. “It’s tough when you swim or dive and then you come home and do your homework and know you have to go to bed because you have to get up in the morning for practice.”

With all of this work as well as the new additions to the varsity level, the team hopes to have great outcomes this season.

The team competes with the best teams in the state including longtime rivals New Trier, Neuqua Valley, Saint Charles North, Hinsdale Central and Rosary High School who have won state consecutively the past three years.