After its historic 2021 campaign for the Lake Forest High School Girls’ Swimming and Diving team during which they broke school records, sent people to state, and scored at the IHSA State Meet for the first time since 2019, the swimmers have worked hard over the past three weeks with grueling double practices, both before and after school, and things are really starting to come together for this small but mighty team. 

“Our team is smaller this year, but it is better for us because it gives us an opportunity to get closer with each other,” senior Ryleigh Tanksley said.

Following one of the strongest seasons of Girls’ Swimming and Diving in recent history, questions have surfaced questioning how the girls will top such strong performances, especially on the diving side of things. Graduated senior Taylor Cekay placed 6th overall at the IHSA state meet last November, shattering the previous school record for six dives on the one-meter board. 

“Taylor was an amazing diver who had been doing it for a long time. Last year was my first year diving and I learned a lot from her but I don’t have near the amount of experience that she has had with diving. I’m hopeful that what I did learn from her will carry me through a fun and competitive season,” senior captain Reagan Fisch said, considering the future and talking about the lasting impact Taylor will have on her and on the team.  

The team opened up their campaign this past Saturday with their classic Scout Relays Invitational. This has been a staple meet for the girls since 2015. Though the girls have only been training together for three weeks, they looked confident and strong among some of the toughest teams in the state. When asked about their performances this weekend, the girls had few words to say.

“It was fun to see everyone step up into things they aren’t used to swimming,” senior Paige Tomek said.

Meet Recap: The girls opened up the meet strong, taking second place in the ‘diver relay’ where each diver does three dives and then the scores are combined and added up for the usual total of six dives. The girls continued the energy flowing into the first few relays, and really kicked it into the Class by Class 50 and 100 free. These were the only two individual events offered at this meet, and each discipline is split up into four different events, one for each respective class, and all of our Scout swimmers contributed. In the 50, junior Lauren Keller took 4th in a time of 26.11, and senior captain Emma Darling took 3rd in a time of 25.70. On the 100 side of things, sophomore Katelyn Heydorn took 3rd in a time of 1:00.61, Junior Giselle Koonce took 3rd with a time of 56.11, and senior captain Ryleigh Tanksley took 4th in the 100 free. The girls had success across all relays this past weekend, but some real standout relays were the 200 FL relay, an event not typically offered in the high school event schedule, where the quad of Ryleigh Tanksley, Paige Tomek, Alex McCann, and Giselle Koonce took 5th in a competitive race. In the 200 FR relay, an event that the girls are looking to qualify for state this year, where the girls took 4th overall, in a blistering time of 1:50.27 swam by the quad of Paige Tomek, Abby Houlihan, Grace Boyle, and Katelyn Heydorn.