Girls swim team celebrates after winning the Lyons Township Relay Invitational on Sept. 9 (photo courtesy of Erin Rodriguez).

The girls swim and dive team started its season strong, winning third place at the Kendall Pickering Invitational at Hinsdale Central on Aug. 26. After scoring ninth overall in state last year, the team is looking to recreate their success in the upcoming season, head varsity  swim coach Scott Walker said.

“A good sign of a good high school swimming program in the state of Illinois is if you can get in the top 10 every year,” Walker said. 

Last year, a total of nine girls qualified for state, including three freshmen who all competed in finals, Walker said. The three relay groups that placed in state last year are mostly intact leaving only a few spots in need of replacing.

“The state swim meet is an intense environment and it’s awesome, but there’s a lot of pressure in the air,” Walker said. “Freshmen got the experience early, so they can spend the next three years going in knowing they can compete this way.”

This season, the girls dive has its largest team in the last couple of years. Normally the team consists of around 12 girls, but this year, 26 participated in tryouts. Six were ultimately cut leaving a group of 20.

“There’s a lot of new divers, a lot of girls who came from gymnastics,” head dive coach Julie McDermott said. “So I’m really excited for the upperclassmen to show the freshmen the ropes.”

There are five freshmen as well as five other new divers, including an Italian exchange student, McDermott said. The entire team practices together on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the afternoon. During Tuesday and Thursday morning practices underclassmen have additional dive practices while upperclassmen participate in dryland fitness activities which help performance in the water. 

“Right now we’re only competing six-dive lists, so the goal is to have a good 11-dive list,” McDermott said.

A six-dive list means each diver has six individual dives they can perform at meets, diver Kate Polomsky ‘25 said. While six-dive lists are used for dual meets, an 11-dive list is required at Conference and on. 

“Because there’s more people, we’re all just working even harder,” Polomsky said. “Almost everyday somebody gets a new dive and that kind of motivates you to do more.” 

Each week there is a theme for the six-dive meets, such as forward or back, she said. Meaning, two dives of the six must be from that specific category. While at 11-dive meets, divers must compete dives from every category.

“We all have really big goals for the season, going into conference and the state series,” Polomsky said. “I’m just really excited to see how all the hard work pays off.”

The girls swim and dive team will be competing next at a home meet against Glenbard West on Sept. 28.