As discussed last week, the structure of the swim season for Lake Forest Girls Swimming is geared toward the coveted “championship season.” The development towards that crucial time remained the focus throughout last week for Varsity head coach Carolyn Grevers.

“I would say the focus was getting the tempo up during their races,” said Grevers. “There are still some struggles with that but things are looking good overall. I’m proud of them.”

The struggles in that tough transition were what Grevers believed may have caused one slight setback to a lofty goal set for the Oct 5 Evanston Invite in last week’s recap.

“Unfortunately, [Mary Grace King] wasn’t able to get those meet records. The change from long distance endurance training into our more recent focus on tempo and sprinting kind of put her off on the timing of her stroke,” Grevers said.

Despite this, Grevers believed the most important things went positively for King and the whole team, and was encouraged for the future.

“Ultimately, it was great to see everyone challenge themselves across the board and push on their times, as that’s really what those meets are about. It’s about the times,” Grevers said. “We were in the fight for top three the entire way and were bumping around between second and fifth as the entire meet really came down to the final relay. Mary Grace pulled out an amazing swim and pulled us into third place in the end. It was a victory for us.”

Following the invite, last week’s home dual meet against a small Zion-Benton ZeeBees team granted a chance for Grevers and the Scouts to tighten their focus on building power, specifically in one aspect of their swimming. 

“Our biggest thing today was focusing on legs. We just did a big ‘leg assault’ this week – challenging our legs in dryland and in practice.”

The just-as-scripted performance for the Scouts Thursday granted some confidence from leaders on the squad, who smile at the future of this season. 

“I think the performance of the team has been stellar,” Senior captain Catherine Terkildsen said. “I’m really excited to see how we carry this power and motivation into our championship season.”

Terkildsen’s excitement about the team even stretched beyond this, her final year as a Scout. “We’ve got a lot of new powerhouse freshmen and they’ve really helped elevate our performance,” she said. 

Another leading senior in Kendra Joachim agreed. “We got quite a few new freshman who have been doing great in their events and really helping the team,” Joachim said.

A common thread on the inside of this team is a plethora of personality, and both swimmers were quick to point this out. 

“We have a great team dynamic and a lot of strong personalities that makes for great team spirit and a lot of hype on meet days and even during practice,” Terkildsen said.

The source of this personality can often be the grueling schedule, as the team builds a close bond over time.

“I think that the identity of the team has been pretty fun-loving and easy-going,” Joachim said. “Swimming is a stressful sport to add on top of school, but we always seem to find a way to laugh our way through hard sets.”

With another week of development for Girls Swim, it was another week of big goals. 

“My personal goals are to make it back to state and make it to finals. As a team I know everyone would love to see some relays and other girls make it to state. We also want to place well at conference and sectionals,” said Joachim. “We’re in a new section this year so it should be interesting.”

Upon the completion of their invite at St. Charles Saturday, the Scouts enter a crucial final push, with some big-time competition at hand. It all begins on Thursday night against the Libertyville Wildcats, and with a Scout Nation “Pack-the-Pool” initiative, there is no reason not to show up and get loud at LFHS Aquatic Center.