The women’s swim team kicked off their season with an overall record of 1-3, after losing to Deerfield (80-101), Fremd (77-109) and Highland Park (79-107). The team’s first win of the season was a home meet against rival GBN on Sept. 19 with the final scoreboard reading 93-92.

Walking into the most anticipated dual meet of the season, the adrenaline was at an all-time-high, and the pressure was on as the rivals faced off, according to junior Sam Casey.

“I [almost] swam three events in a row, the 200 free relay, the 100 back, and the 400 free relay,” Casey said. “I was swimming well, so I was so pumped for my races that I didn’t even think about anything else. Going home is when it hit me that I was so tired from the meet.”

The adrenaline pushed the teams through the tight meet as GBS and GBN swam neck-and-neck throughout its entirety. The teams managed to hold the score at a few points difference, causing the last event, the 400 freestyle relay, to decide South’s fate. To win the meet, the girl’s needed to place second and third in the relay. The team placed second and forth, thus losing the meet. Yet, a GBN swimmer’s illegal action caused an uproar.

“We wound up placing second and forth,” senior captain Connie Chrones said. “So, that meant we lost, but it turned out that, at the end of the meet, the score was 93-92 because their third place relay got disqualified, because the girl swam underneath the lane lines which is illegal, so GBS won.”

GBN cheered at the top of their lungs as their relays finished, not knowing the disqualification had taken the win from under them, until the announcer presented the end score of GBS 93 and GBN 92.

“GBN started cheering right after the relay finished, and it was such a shocker when it was announced that GBS had actually won,” Chrones said. “You could just see GBN’s faces, every single one of them, including the coaches just turned around and looked at us in utter disbelief.”

Senior captain Ali Campbell acknowledges that even if the disqualification never happened, the girls still would have been content with the result of that dual meet.

“If the swimmer didn’t get [disqualified], and we didn’t win, I still would have been happy with the outcome of that meet, because we were within one or two points away from them most of the time,” Campbell said.

Head Coach Keith MacDonald attributes the win to their ability in the pool, and acknowledges that the meet contained the greatest uproar in his history of coaching.

“We had a great last relay but GBN was better so we knew we had lost the meet,” MacDonald said. “We congratulated and shook hands with GBN, and then the score was announced with us winning. In 25 years of coaching I’ve never quite experienced such a unique finish.”

The day after the meet, GBS arrived to participate in the Spartan Classic Relay, with GBS placing fifth and GBN taking sixth place.

“It felt good, because, after the [GBN disqualification], they said we didn’t deserve that win, and I think we proved to them the next day, since we beat them again,” Casey said.

The next time the team will hit the pool is Oct. 2 as they face off against New Trier.