On Tuesday, Feb.11 the swim team left school early and made their way to the St. Peter’s Rec Plex to compete in this year’s girls swim GACs. While this was an exciting event for many, it was this year’s senior’s final swim of their high school career.

Lanes, Heats and Meet Sheets. Senior Lily EcEwen and freshman Madison Adams write down their events on their arms while everyone else gathers around to read the meet sheet for the competition. Meets like GACs can get long so to avoid confusion many swimmers wrote down their event number, heat and lane before warm ups started. “When I get nervous it’s like a safety net telling me when and where I need to be for my race so it’s one less thing I have to worry about,” sophomore Sarah Frerker said.

Huddled Together. The team locks arms and groups together to talk and say their cheer before races start. Having ended the season with GACs, the team grew together and looked out for one another in the pool and out of the pool. “It was nice to have everybody,” sophomore Hannah Alexander said. “It’s kind of like a family, everyone was always there for each other and it was always really nice.”

Reaching Back. Senior Lily EcEwen starts the races off as she swims backstroke for the 200 medley relay. McEwen’s relay team waited eagerly and cheered their teammate on as she started what was going to be her last swim meet. “It was a lot of fun as always,” EcEwen said. “It was very different because it was the last time I’ll be swimming, so it was definitely bittersweet.”

All Smiles. From left to right, seniors Meghan Vieth, Mary Kimbrough, Katie Pieper, Lily McEwen and Olivia Hellems smile as they enjoy each other’s company as some head back from the blocks and others are on their way. “I was sad, but really excited at the same time,” Vieth said,”because it was going to be my last GACs ever.”

Swimming Through Nerves. Sophomore Hannah Alexander swims the 200 freestyle. Coaches and teammates cheered her on as Alexander hoped to make finals the next day for the event. “I was really nervous,” Alexander said. “It was really scary because it’s a different experience than a normal meet because everyone’s on edge and really nervous.”

Taking A Breath. After just swimming, Sarah Frerker takes a breath and looks up to read her time on the board. After seeing her time she realized what she needed to do to improve and decrease her time for finals. “I was feeling good, I was feeling ready, but at first I didn’t get the time I wanted,”Freker said, “so for finals I was more nervous and really wanted to drop time.”

Diving Into Finals. Mary Kimbrough enters the pool as Lily EcEwen hits the walls for their last swim of the 200 medley relay. This started the last day of GACs and a heavily anticipated day of finals for the team. “It didn’t really hit me until the last day of GACs,” Kimbrough said, “ where I was really sad, but really tired at the same time so I was ready to have a break.”

Timing Is Everything. Senior Leslie Garcia, one of the swim managers, gets ready to time another race. Some of the biggest support for the team came with a stopwatch in hand, Garcia and her fellow manager Lindsey Dejong spent the day behind the blocks as they timed and cheered the team on. “I think GACs went outstanding,”Garcia said. “Seeing everyone on the team try their hardest and get their race done was all that anyone can ask honestly, because whether or not they placed at finals doesn’t mean they are not good, but maybe they can have an idea on how to improve for next year.”

Last Laps. Meghan Vieth swims the 500 freestyle for the last time. Since the 500 freestyle race is such a long one, everyone that swam it had to have a counter or counters that held a sign in the pool to tell the swimmer how many laps they had left. “I definitely went all out on my last lap for the finals and I dropped 10 seconds,” Vieth said, “but in my head I was thinking this is my last race, make it count.”