This year, the Vernon Hills High School Girls Swimming and Diving team has the most talent that the program has had since its start. With historic results and great individual performances, the Cougars are looking to keep the momentum going so they can send multiple competitors to state.

“Over the years we’ve had a couple of outstanding individuals, maybe as many as three or four, that you would say are state qualifiers,” Coach Greenawalt said. “This year, we have several girls that are already below the state cut time [for their event].”

Some of the Varsity members that are potentially looking at competing in state are Sasha Skatchkov (10), Casey Craffey (9), Nicole Pinter (12), Drew Petereit (11), Allison Landis (10), Avery Longdon (10), Elizabeth Long (11), and Anna Long (9).

Coach Greenawalt credits the team’s success to the accumulation of talent from the freshmen and sophomores.

“I work with the club team that is one of the feeder programs around the area,” Coach Greenawalt explained. “We’ve got some talented ladies coming into the program for the next three or four years, so we are pretty set up for the future as well.”

Even though state is the final goal, the girls are just as focused on beating the opponents they face along the way. The team has improved from last season. They managed to tie Stevenson and beat Libertyville.

“I was overjoyed when we beat Libertyville’s swim and dive team because we worked together as a team to accomplish this goal,” Anya Caples (12), Varsity team captain, said. “We also tied Stevenson, which was the best we have ever done against them.”

Recently, the team participated at the Lake County Invite, which includes many of the state’s top teams. Allison Landis posted a personal best score of 392 at an 11-dive meet. The Cougars won six out of the twelve events, coming in second overall. They also participated at the Blue Devil Invite at Warren Township High School. The Cougars came in first place with a team score of 304, capturing the first Invite win in program history.

Every swimmer on the team has their own goals for the season. While the overall team goal seems to be a big one, it doesn’t seem to be a reach for this talented team.

“We look to continue to add to that, and have our best overall record, best finishes at invitations, and hopefully make a significant run in the state meet. We also hope to finish in the top ten,” Coach Greenawalt said.

Many swimmers and divers on the team hope to make state in as many of their events as possible. “I would like to make it to state in four events that I am in. I would like to place top 10 at state. This would be a very big deal since it would be my first meet against girls that swim college division one times,” Casey Craffey stated. “These goals are very big, but I think that the only way to reach your goals is to make them high.”

The Cougars will take part in IHSA Sectionals on Nov. 11 and State Preliminaries on Nov. 17; both meets will take place at Vernon Hills High School.