A total of 19 swimmers and one diver from both the boys’ and girls’ swimming and diving teams attended CCS preliminaries on May 16. The next day, four swimmers, four relay teams and the diver returned for CCS finals.
“I was pretty happy with how we did this year, both girls and guys,” sophomore Bradley Newton said. “Last year, only [senior Cameron Borch] and I finaled while this year a lot more [people] did.”
Freshman Stefanie Ting placed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and 16th in the 200-yard individual medley, sophomore Lukas Andreason placed seventh in the one-meter dive, Borch placed 11th in the 200-yard freestyle and 16th in the 100-yard freestyle, Newton placed 15th in the 500-yard freestyle and junior Yayla Sezinger placed 16th in the 500-yard freestyle.
“I was seeded into preliminaries higher [for the 100-yard breaststroke], but considering it was my first CCS ever I think I swam well,” Ting said. “I’m determined to place higher next year, so I’m definitely going to push myself even harder at practice.”
Additionally, the boys’ 200-yard freestyle relay placed sixth, the girls’ 200-yard medley relay placed 11th, the girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay placed 14th and the boys’ 400-yard freestyle relay placed 16th.
The girls’ 400-yard freestyle team, consisting of Ting, Sezinger, freshman Gillian Grant and junior Madison Gress, was seeded 19th before preliminaries, then went about four seconds faster in preliminaries, seeding 14th going into finals, and went just under three seconds faster in finals.
“We were all just really happy with our time improvement and to make finals, especially since two of the four relay members were freshmen and this was their first CCS,” Gress said.
Although the team will lose several seniors next season, it looks to continue its success next year with its strong foundation of underclassmen swimmers.
“Next year, the team will be swimming pretty fast because we have a bunch of fast underclassmen that will be even faster next year,” Newton said. “Hopefully, we’ll smash the other schools.”
