Elizabeth Baum ‘24 enters the final stretch of her race while competing in the butterfly (Photo courtesy of Chuck Baum).

The girls swim and dive team ended its season on Nov. 11, finishing fourth overall in State with many individual awards.

Tess Walker ‘24 finished 14th in the dive competition. Libby Langan ‘24, Ella Jean Kelly ‘25, Audrey Cavaliere ‘25, and Maeve Collins ‘26 finished second in the 200 freestyle relay. Lindsay Forebaugh ‘26 finished 10th in the 500 freestyle, Cavaliere finished seventh in the 100 freestyle, Kelly finished seventh in the 50 freestyle, and Cavaliere, Collins, Lauren Jablonski ‘25, and Kiley Thompson ‘26 finished fourth in the 200 medley relay. 

“I was so happy with where we finished,” Kelly said. “Our team goal from the beginning was to get top six at state, so we exceeded our expectations. As the season progressed, we became undefeated in all our duals, and we’re conference champions, so it made us confident that we could do even better.”

Finishing fourth was a result that the whole team worked for. Head coach Scott Walker knew that after the team took on Hinsdale Central in a meet, they turned a corner in the season and were headed for big things.

“We had a team meeting where I shared my coaching goals with [the team],” Walker said. “[This was] followed by beating Hinsdale Central in a duel meet. [This] might have been the defining moment. After that, the team just took off.”

Both swim and dive operate as one overall team, so the final place in state was combined between the swimming events and the individual placings in dive. The dive competition is over two days with the top divers making it into the second day, in all if a diver makes it into the second day they will have had 11 total dives. 

“I am definitely happy I made day two finals,” Tess Walker said. “This was my second dive season ever, and I don’t club dive either, so I am really happy that I was able to excel enough to be all-state. Besides State, I placed top three  in every single meet I competed in, which I think is definitely a success.”

Even though both swim and dive compete differently, they still celebrate and work together. The team events contain both swimmers and divers, and they also all share special traditions.

“Our team has a lot of fun traditions,” Tess Walker said. “Face painting the freshman at the annual football tailgate, pasta parties, lots of great American Bagel bonding, sectionals and state dinners, and a lot of other silly things, like spray tans and hair dyeing before sectionals/state.”

Although the divers and swimmers are the main characters within the team, the parents also play a special role in the success within and outside of the team.

“The parents were so supportive,” head coach Walker said. “It was the parents that allowed the coaches to coach and the swimmers and divers to do what they needed to do.  I think great things happen when the team, coaches and parents are having fun and are all rowing in the same boat. We all were just having fun.”