During the first week of Aug. The Niles North girls swim and dive team began seasonal training for their upcoming season events. 

On Sept. 17, the Vikings participated in their first meet of the season against Evanston Township. The environment of this meet helped build community and unity among the team. 

“It was a lot of fun, everyone was getting used to meets and I liked all the cheering we did,” sophomore Sarah Gomez said. 

On Sept. 29, the Vikings traveled to rivals Niles West. After a lot of hard work and dedication by the players and relays involved, the Vikings managed to tally the most points and take the win against the Wolves. “We won our Niles West meet, it was close in a few events, but we pulled through and secured another victory, giving us a winning streak for dual meets. The season itself is going pretty well, our morale is high leading into senior night having 10 seniors.” sophomore Alana Sindelar said. 

Senior night will be held on Oct. 6 against Maine East.  A bittersweet ceremony will be held at 5:00 p.m. to honor all 10 of the seniors on the team. It’s emotional to be a senior competing in your last season as a high school athlete. You’re happy doing what you love but are sad to see it end. “I’m very in denial that it’s the last season. And it is stressful because I was injured last year. It’s a mix of feelings, I’m happy and sad but mostly in denial. It doesn’t feel real, it feels like yesterday that we were freshmen and planning the senior night. It doesn’t even feel like it’s our senior night.” senior Teo Dalangin said. 

The Vikings are consistently putting in good work and effort during practices and during meets. Their season is looking to be successful based on what we have seen so far. With conference upcoming the stakes are even higher than before. The Vikings have high hopes for their capabilities the remainder of the season.