Despite tough meets, swimmers meet CCS, CIFC times

The swimming team hasn’t obtained great results in the team category, but several individual stars are continuing to shine.

The team fell to Gunn on March 24, with varsity boys losing 117-53 and varsity girls losing 90-82, and Palo Alto on March 18 at home, with varsity boys losing 117-53 and varsity girls losing 104-65.

“Palo Alto is one of the top teams in the league, so [our defeat] wasn't unexpected,” Yang said.

And while the team may have lost the meet, a handful of swimmers qualified for CCS in their events.

Standout senior Jack Xie placed first in the 100-yard Butterfly event with a time of 51:30 seconds and the boys’ 100-yard breaststroke event with a time of 57:81 seconds, times under the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Consideration State cuts for both events (if Xie meets these times at CCS finals for these events, he may swim in these events at the CIF state meet). He and seniors Rahul Cheeniyil and Jonathan Fung and freshman Nick Burry placed second as a team in the boys’ 200-yard Medley with a time of 1:43:59. In the boys’ 200-yard freestyle relay, the team of Xie, Cheeniyil and seniors Arnav Pawar and Harrison Yang placed second with a time of 1:32:56. Both relay groups made CCS cut times.

In the girls’ team, freshman Madeline Stuart placed first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:58:88 and second 500-yard with a time of 5:21:99 freestyle, qualifying for CCS in both events. Sophomore Jeanette Khowong won and made CCS cuts in the 200-yard IM event with a time of 2:14:50 seconds and the 100-yard backstroke event with a time of 1:01:33.

The girls’ 200-yard Medley Relay team of Khowong, junior Stefanie Ting, sophomore Colina Guan and freshman Lei Otsuka, the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of Stuart, Ting, junior Anna Zhou and freshman Ashley Feng and the girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay team of Feng, Khowong, Stuart and Zhou all made CCS cuts. The 200-yard Medley Relay team finished in 1:51.13, the 200-yard freestyle relay team finished in 1:44:86 and the 400-yard freestyle relay team finished in 3:53:41 seconds.

“Having this many make it so far is actually a pretty good start,” Yang said. “A lot of swimmers don't get their CCS cuts until leagues, as that’s a meet where we cut down on the workload and shave if we don’t already have CCS cuts, so that everyone is performing at their best.”

Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon could not cover the team’s meet at Homestead on March 31.