Diving to new depths

Girls swimming starts off season strong, last year’s squad achieves national academic award

Diving+to+new+depths

Bailey Blum, Sports Editor

As Mackenna Dunn ‘16 dried herself off after a hard-fought swim in a dual-meet against Hinsdale Central, she looked around the locker room and decided a change was needed. After a tough first half in their dual meet against Hinsdale Central on Sept. 24, the girls were down on themselves and upset at their own performances. Dunn knew they needed a spark.

“At the middle break, we had a huge pep talk and tried to motivate everyone to keep their heads up and keep working hard,” Dunn said. “That really got us going, and the rest of the meet went much better for us.”

The girls defeated Hinsdale Central 100-86, a match that set the tone for the rest of their season. Dunn captains the team alongside Molly Rogan ‘16 and Taylor Guagenti ‘16, and the dive team is captained by Alex Scotty ‘16. The team is currently 3-0 in Conference and 4-1 overall, its only loss having come at the hands of state powerhouse New Trier. The girls don’t see that loss as a setback, however.

“We came the closest we ever have to beating New Trier,” Dunn said. “People are just ready to do well this year. The past few years, there’s always been the sense that we could’ve done better, but this year I think really could be our year.”

In addition to their internal drive to succeed, there’s been a variety of other factors that have made this year especially special for the girls swimming and diving team.

“I think a big thing this year is that Coach Kurt Johns slightly changed his coaching strategy,” Dunn said. “There’s definitely been a lot more focus put on staying positive mentally, instead of just the usual physical goals of working hard and getting better.”

This year, the team has experienced an increase in team-building exercises, as well as Johns giving talks and sending the girls motivational articles to read before meets, Dunn said. Naturally coming alongside the increase in positivity amongst the girls has been a strong sense of team unity.

If you were walking through the North Campus hallways on Sept. 24, the day of the Hinsdale Central meet, it wouldn’t take long before the bright and extravagant signs decorating every swimmer’s locker exclaiming “Swim fast!” demanded your attention. It’s little things like these add to the spirit of the season, Dunn said.

“We have a lot of new, really talented freshmen that came in, so creating a welcoming and united environment for them has really been a big focus for us this year,” three-year varsity member Paige Mitchell ‘17 said.

With the influx of new freshmen has come an increase in roster depth. A friendly sense of competition amongst the girls has been created, who all are competing for the top spots on varsity, Mitchell said.

“In all of our relays right now, we’re just looking for that fourth person,” Coach Johns said. “We have a ton of great options this year, and we’re just trying to find who is going to be the best fit.”

This year, the girls biggest goal is getting someone to come back for the second day of the state competition, Dunn said. Only the top 12 girls from each event advance, and last year they didn’t return anyone for the second day. As the season winds to a close, however, the need for top-performance only gets higher.

“Our depth is the reason we’ve done so well at dual-meets and larger invitationals,” Johns said. “As we whittle down to the end of the season, we’re going to get to those meets where we can only enter a few girls. The question becomes whether those few top girls can really rise to the occasion, and this year I think they can.”