Stroke after stroke. Breath after breath. Flip turn after flip turn. Sophomore Bradley Newton’s legs were burning on his second to last lap of the 500-yard freestyle race at the March 13 swimming meet between Saratoga and Monta Vista.

Seeing another swimmer in front of him, Newton used all of his remaining energy to sprint to the finish. Newton finished third in the event, just over one second behind second place.

“Although I didn’t go a best time or beat [the second-place swimmer], it was still a good way to start off the season,” Newton said.

The boys’ varsity swimming team lost 116-60 to the Matadors.

“It was a little crazy because it was our first meet, but overall, the team swam well,” junior Brian Lew said. “Even though we lost, we flashed our potential as a team.”

Lew believes the team could have trained harder to prepare for the meet and given each other more support at the meet. He said cheering for teammates helps them swim faster.

It’s always tough to replace swimmers who graduate on varsity, and this year several underclassmen have emerged, including sophomore breaststroker Harrison Yang.

“[Breastroker] Michael [Lee] who graduated last year was one of our fastest swimmers last year,” Yang said. “I definitely feel a lot of pressure trying to fill such a big hole.”

The boys’ next meet took place March 28 at home against Palo Alto, where they lost 125-60.

For now, the team plans on training hard every day and hopes to improve at their next meet on April 17 at Gunn High School.

“As long as we continue to work our butts off in practice, we will definitely have a shot at winning our next meet,” Newton said.