Girls’ swimming dominated while the boys’ squad finished as runners-up at the League Championships on May 10.
Junior Mary Ashby, who placed 1st in the girls’ 50 freestyle, said the team was ecstatic about the title performance. “We were really proud of ourselves, and happy with the win,” she said.
Highlights of the day included the girls’ 400yd freestyle relay with a time of 3:39.50, over 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place. “We tab touched everyone by half a lap, and it was so much fun. There were so many people at the end cheering. Before the race they did the ‘Cats are best’ cheer, and it was full of spirit and lots of fun,” Ashby said.
According to Ashby, the lopsided score was partly due to other teams’ athlete’s being disqualified in various events. “They helped, but we would’ve won otherwise,” she said.
The team was initially uncertain of how they would perform this season. “Towards the end we got a lot more support from our coach and we believed in ourselves more and that helped a lot. We did a lot better than we thought we would, and girls’ dominated by over 100 points,” she said. She attributes this to the strong team bond and the mental preparation the team put into the competition.
The boys’ team came in second to Las Lomas by 38.5 points at the DFAL meet.
Sophomore Jolen Griffin, who won the individual 100yd butterfly event, was proud of the team’s performance. “We had a lot of people that stepped up to get a first or second in every race that we swam,” he said.
The team won several individual events, including the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. “For the 200 free relay, we won second, but 1st place was DQ’d, so we moved up,” Griffin said.
Griffin also noted how motivational their coach, Ronnie Heidary, was after his team’s disqualification in the Mens’ 400yd freestyle relay. “Our coach did a really good job talking to us when we got DQ’d on the last relay.He did a good job with making us feel better about it,” he said.
Advanced Placement exams from May 4-May 16 may it difficult for some athletes to focus on the meet. Ashby had 2 AP tests in the week leading up to the meet. She said she was stressing out a lot and staying up late. “I probably would’ve done better at DFALs if I had slept a lot. It’s taking a toll on me, but it’s worth it,” she said.
Ashby was also recovering from a back injury, and had been out for most of the season. “I was really out of shape, and really surprised by how I did,” she said.
The teams will compete again in the NorCal meet on May 17.
