Courtesy of Michael Allegretti and Kristen Thomson

Swimmers at CCS after their exhausting but rewarding swims.

As swimmers stood cheering on the blazing hot pool deck of Independence High School, senior Kelsey Zhang finished off the 200-yard individual medley race with a time of 1:57.12. Not only did Zhang finish in first place, she had also managed to set a Central Coast Section (CCS) record twice during the meet, both for preliminaries and finals, which took place from May 5-9.

The meet also included many lifetime bests and school records for the SHS swimmers, with six swimmers in individual events and 13 swimming in relays. Swim coach Michael Allegretti emphasized the effort it takes to make it to the CCS meet.

“Our section of swimming is one of the fastest sections in California,” Allegretti said. “Qualifying for this meet requires a high level of commitment, focus and hard work day in and day out.”

Putting in all the work from endless hours of training, the girls’ 200-yard medley relay placed third at finals and the 200-yard freestyle relay placed seventh. Both qualified for state championships which will take place at Clovis West High School from May 14-16. 

Senior Emma Geng, junior Lauren Fanucchi, sophomore Aimee Sun and Zhang swam both relays and took third place overall for the medley relay at CCS finals with a new school record time of 1:44.54.

Additionally, junior Kevin Chen, Fanucchi, junior Ryan Tong, Sun, senior Taewon Yim and Zhang all swam individual events at the meet.

Chen qualified for finals in the the 100-yard breaststroke, placing 12th with a time of 58.44, which beat his best time by 0.6 seconds. Fanucchi qualified for finals in both events, placing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly and 11th in the 500-yard freestyle.

Sun also qualified for finals in the 100-yard breaststroke, dropping 0.82 seconds and placing sixth with a time of 1:03.85.

Yim placed third in both the 200-yard freestyle, going a time of 1:38.11 and dropping 2.13 seconds, and the 500-yard freestyle, going a time of 4:28.18 and dropping 2.69 seconds. Not only did Yim qualify for the state championships in both of his events, but he also met the qualifying times for the Winter Junior Nationals in these events for the first time. 

Zhang placed first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 52.29 seconds in addition to the 200-yard individual medley, earning a spot at the state championships for both her events. Zhang is committed to UC Berkeley for Division I swimming, where she will continue to compete at national and international levels.

“I met a lot of new people during my time swimming for the high school team, and it’s taught me to balance my time wisely while I swim for my club team,” Zhang said. “It’s bittersweet to not have another high school dual meet, but I always have college and dual meets at Berkeley too.” 

With the team’s performances, the girls’ team took seventh while the boys’ team took 21st. Aside from best times and records, Chen mentioned that teamwork and team traditions have played a large role in the teams CCS experiences. 

“[Our traditional] pre-CCS team breakfast not only gives us adequate fuel to compete before finals, but also allows us to dial in focus, but also gives a shift in mentality,” Chen said. “Teamwork also plays a much bigger role than one may believe, as swimming is an extremely individualized sport, so just a bit of support really goes a long way.”