he Spalding Girls Varsity Swimming Team made history on December 17th, 2024, by beating the most undefeated team in the IAAM A conference. This team is otherwise known as Notre Dame Prep (NDP) and has not lost a single duel meet in over 30 years. Last year, we placed second overall in the IAAM championship, just a small scale behind NDP. At the beginning of last year’s season, their team was aware of our uprising in points and victories due to incoming swimmers. Spalding built a team that broke records, conquered victories against previously unbeaten teams, and placed the highest ever in Spalding Swimming history in our IAAM conference. Once NDP became aware of our success, the rivalry began. This set up a showdown between the Lady Water Caves and the Blazers. Prior to our swim meet with NDP last year, a rumor came out that they were anxious to face us due to how substantial our progress had grown. Unfortunately, we lost the duel meet against them last year, but it only made this year’s victory even better!
The swim meet on December 17, 2024, was a meet that everyone was anticipating. NDP knew we were ready and coming to win, and both teams had this meet circled on their calendars. This meet was a battle between the top two teams in the conference, and the rivalry was immense. NDP had posters surrounding their pool, saying, “What’s a lady water cav?” Thinking it would get into our heads, we found it quite hilarious. Spalding’s assistant coach, Chris Klemm, talked about how it was crucial to place as high as possible in individual events and relays to accumulate as many points as humanly possible. He claimed that it’s not just about getting first in every event. It is about the overall placing in every heat because the top 3 finishers in a heat accumulate the most points. While we didn’t win every event, we capitalized on strong places in every event and used Coach’s strategy to secure our victory. The meet environment was tremendously intense, with everyone on their heels trying to keep track of the score. There was lots of music, cheering, and excitement throughout the pool. The final score of the meet was 99.5 (Spalding) to 70.5 ( NDP). This victory left Spalding in awe of what we can do in the future. The rivalry with NDP is not over, and we are very excited to see what the future holds for the Lady Water Cavs!
