Sometimes, you just have to want it more. And after a season of losing, no team could want a win more than Georgetown.

The Georgetown women’s swimming and diving team proved as much at its senior meet on Saturday, defeating cross-town rival American 119-118 and improving to 2-7 on the season.

On the men’s side, a 120-110 loss to the Eagles meant falling to 0-9 overall, though with only a 10-point deficit, it was their closest meet this season. In the previous eight meets, the men had lost by an average of 83.75 points.

The energy was high on both sides of the pool. “I think we wanted it,” interim Head Coach Steven Cartwright said. “It was nice to have a lot of the alumni back. A lot of the parents were in town. It was our senior meet. This place was rockin.'”

Senior co-captain Laura Sytnyk agreed that the intensity and camaraderie at the meet were decisive in the women’s victory. “It was really good. Everybody was up and cheering during this meet,” she said. “And having everybody getting up and cheering for people during the races makes a huge difference”

In their quest to defeat the Eagles, the two Hoya squads picked up 25 season-best times and won three of their four relay events.

“On the guys team, winning the first relay helped out a lot, and then we won, like, the next event, too, so it was like a really big shot at winning,” sophomore co-captain David Ballinger said.

On the men’s side, freshmen Brian Koh and Eric Mooney joined sophomores Goran Bistric and Ballinger to win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:39.07.

For the women, sophomore Katelyn O’Connor teamed up with freshmen Laura Alito, Lindsay Vickroy and Laura Stark to clinch first place in the 200yd medley relay for the women with a time of 1:52.41. Vickroy, Alito, freshman Emma Porteus and junior Torey affey took first in the 500yd freestyle event.

In the men’s individual events, Koh swam to first-place finishes in both the 400yd individual medley and the 100yd breaststroke with times of 4:17.32 and 1:03.22. Mooney took first in the 200yd freestyle, while Bistric swam to second place in the 100yd butterfly.

Sophomore co-captain Daniel Robinson placed first in the 500yd freestyle and second in the 400yd individual medley. Freshman Wes Going posted a first-place finish in the 1000yd freestyle and second place in the 100yd backstroke. Sophomore diver Michael cWilliams won both the one- and three-meter diving events for Georgetown.

For the women, Stark swam to another first-place finish in the 500yd freestyle with a time of 5:11.30 – a full 11 seconds ahead of the next competitor. Stark also earned a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle. Alito won the 100yd butterfly in 57.68.

Freshman diver Maija Paegle finished first and second in the one-meter and three-meter diving events, respectively. Junior Caitlin Colling took second-place honors in the 50yd freestyle event and the 100yd freestyle event, while Senior Laura Sytnyk swam to second place in the 400yd individual medley with a time of 4:46.22.

The women’s squad next travels to Drexel on Saturday, Jan. 27 for a meet slated at 2 p.m. The whole team will return to the water for a final regular-season meet at George Mason on Feb. 2.

Regardless of their trials, Georgetown is looking forward to proving themselves in the Big East Championship.

“I just think that overall success and just coming out with the hard work we put into the season and getting something out of it [is] all that matters,” Bistric said.