The girls’ swim and dive team entered this season as reigning state champions with one goal in mind: winning states back-to-back. Achieving this goal is not a given but it is also far from impossible. States will be Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25 at the University of Maryland, College Park. In the regular season, the Wildcats won every single meet. This included beating BCC, Whitman, Wootton, Blair and Churchill.

“I feel like performing well in the regular season is helping our confidence as a team because we know that we can compete well against other strong teams in the area, and also because we know that we can come together as a team. States is going to be exciting because we will have a chance to use everything we’ve been able to learn this season,” sophomore Madeleine Simmons said.

The girls started off the championship season by winning divisionals. At this meet, they beat BCC by seven and a half points. However, BCC placed ahead of WJ at Metros, adding to the suspense of who is going to win states.

The girls won regionals the following week, with a score of 315 points. BCC took second with 301 points. With that being said, BCC will be the teams’ biggest competition at states.

“It’s going to be really really close between us and BCC at states. We did beat them at divisionals and regionals so we’re using that to push ourselves and we plan to race as hard as we can because we know it’s not going to be an easy win,” senior captain Sienna Karp said.

From breaking records to winning every dual meet, the Wildcats have shown they are a force to be reckoned with. All things considered, whether or not the girls come home state champions, they have proven their unique chemistry and dominance in the pool this season.

“Everything that we have done this season has prepared us for states. We have put in the work, time and effort to perform our best,” senior captain Maren Conze said.