By Shannon Smith
Executive In-Depth Editor 
Tensions were high Thursday, Oct. 9 at Wheeling where Prospect girls’ swim and dive faced Hersey. Both teams were competing to stay in the race for the Mid-Suburban League East title, and Prospect won across the board.
Frosh-soph won by a total of 42 points, JV won by 27 points and varsity won by 16 points.
Last year Prospect edged out Heresy by two points ending the Huskies six year streak of winning the MSL East and the Knights are hoping to win the MSL East title again this year.
According to head coach Alfonso Lopez and senior Ellie McGough, they thought the tension and pressure placed on the team helped them perform better.
“I just felt like as a team, they ramped it up to swim,” Lopez said.  “They came to race. Our times were ridiculous today, and it just comes with the competition. It’s amazing what a little pressure can do.”
Multiple people swam their fastest times in the events they competed in including McGough who took second in the varsity 500 free with a time of 5:34.90. This time was a second and a half better than her previous time.
According to Lopez, the increase of winning by two points to 16 shows the team is improving year after year.
“I think that speaks to the depth of our team,” Lopez said. “And the flexibility we have. A lot of girls have multiple events they can swim, and they work on all of them in the off-season so were not really limited by girls who are only able to do a couple of events here and there.”
McGough agrees with Lopez, she thinks that winning by so many points shows how much they’ve improved since last year.
“I can see how much we’ve grown from last year like how much stronger we are as a team rather than just individually,” McGough said.
This year the team had 12 returning seniors, which has been very beneficial to the team throughout the season according to Lopez, and they will be missed next year.
This meet was their senior night and the juniors on the team sent the seniors off with gift baskets, and assigned each of them a superhero because they are “super seniors.”
McGough is sad that this part of her life is ending, but also sees it as a start of a new chapter for her.
“[I’m going to miss] the team atmosphere and all the people because they’re my second family and I love them,” McGough said.
The team still has one more dual meet they need to win against Wheeling Thursday, Oct. 16 to claim the MSL East Title.