Splashes echo throughout the otherwise silent South pool while senior swimmer Emma Hogan competes in a virtual meet without knowing whether or not she has the lead.

For the South girls’ swim and dive team, this is how competitions will look this year because of new Covid-19 protocols.

Even after a loss to New Trier in their first swim meet of the year, Head Coach Kimberly Kiraly was proud of the team. Kiraly said the meet went well and they were fortunate to come together and be a team despite the negative of starting the season on a loss.

“I’m really proud of [the team] for having a positive attitude and making the most of the very unique situation,” Kiraly said.

Not only has the format for meets changed, Hogan explained, practices have also been impacted a lot by the pandemic. In the past, each practice lane had four people, but now there can only be two per lane and each swimmer is on opposing sides of the pool, Hogan said. The changes have impacted the team’s bonding, according to senior diver Dina Saef. It makes it more difficult to succeed, but it also brings the team together at the same time.

“Usually we can talk and be right by one another but we have to spread out more so it’s a little bit harder to get together during practice,” Saef said. “But it’s definitely [brought the team] closer because we can’t see people in real life as often.”

As for competing, a lot of the divers got personal bests in the first meet, according to Saef. Despite the early successes, Saef still hopes to improve throughout the season by learning two new dives. Saef said that the main goal of the team is to be supportive of teammates and to keep working hard through the whole season.

“I think we all want to be supportive of one another and make it through the season without having to quarantine that much,” Saef explained. “[We also hope] that everyone has a good season and everyone supports one another.”

During the first meet, it was hard to find motivation while swimming in a pool alone, Hogan said. Virtual meets involve swimming or diving in the pool without any opponents, one of the major impacts on the sport due to coronavirus. After the meets are over, each team’s coaches record scores and times, then send the scores to coaches of the opposing team.

“It’s a little bit harder to find the motivation in a race to swim next to a ghost that’s not there,” Hogan said.

Despite this, Hogan sees a lot to be excited about for the rest of the meets this season. After getting into the flow of things and gaining a better understanding of how the season is going to play out, Hogan looks forward to competing later in the season and bonding with the team.

“It’s going to be fun to see all of our hard work pay off at the end of the season,” Hogan explained.