The girls swim and dive team went head-to-head against many competitive teams this year and was able to finish first in a majority of its meets.  This helped the girls to place second at the Conference Meet and tenth at the State Meet.

“[I think] we can always work on better turns, relay exchanges, fundamentals, and finishes,” head coach Dennis Neat said. “[They are the] three basics to having a great race and working on these definitely helped at the Conference and State Meets.”

The ladies were able to start the season off strong by winning their first four meets and then falling second to EGR in the fifth meet. Many of the girls on the team this year were able to make State cuts, which formed a team of nine at the end of the season heading to Oakland University for the State Meet. All nine girls were able to place well in all events, including senior Jessica Schellenboom who placed first in the 100-yard Breaststroke.

“I think the whole team did really well this season and we improved a lot,” junior Sarah Schenck said. “[I’m] most proud of the whole team for coming and working hard together.”

Star swimmer, senior Jessica Schellenboom, placed first in multiple meets this season and placed fourth in the State Meet in the 200 IM in addition to her claiming the State title in Breaststroke. She contributed to the team in many relays and individual strokes this season and helped contribute to the team’s final record. Sophomore Emily Johnson and junior Sarah Schenck also helped the team a lot this year by achieving multiple first places and making State cuts.

“I think we needed to all work on our finishes for the Conference Meet, ” senior Katie Johnson said. “We had a lot of morning and afternoon practices and really put in a lot of time and effort to get this far.”

The ladies’ most competitive meet this year was against a rival team, the East Grand Rapids Pioneers. EGR was one of the biggest rivals not only this season but also in previous seasons. The girls lost to them in a head-to-head meet this season but had many girls take solid places. Junior Maggie Zorn, freshmen Jessica Doyel and Maggie Hier, and senior Kara Bolger all came together to help the team by placing first in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay. Many other noted individual performances were junior Sarah Schenck placing second in the 100-yard Butterfly, senior Jessica Schellenboom placing first in the 100-yard Backstroke, sophomore Olivia Hooper placing second in the 100-yard Backstroke, and freshman Jessica Doyel placing first in the 50-yard Freestyle.

The diving team had many notable performances this season with key divers seniors Lauren Gesik and Grace Clinger. Both Lauren and Grace had many top performances this season and Lauren even went as far as to make it to the MHSAA Diving Regionals in early November. The entire diving team was also able to put up ample scores and performed multiple different dives to contribute to the team’s final standings each meet.

“I think it has gone pretty well,” senior Katherine Bell said. “It has gone better than past years and I feel like we were definitely getting closer and closer to EGR’s score [each year]. I just felt like we improved every minute and placing second in the conference was really nice.”