In a turn of events Coach Jason York described as “fun to watch,” swimmers from Foothill’s girls’ and boys’ junior varsity team took their places on the starting blocks at the same time.
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In a turn of events Coach Jason York described as “fun to watch,” swimmers from Foothill’s girls’ and boys’ junior varsity team took their places on the starting blocks at the same time.
Because Grace Brethren High School, the Dragons’ opponents in Wednesday’s home meet, did not have a junior varsity team, the boys’ and girls’ junior varsity races were combined to allow Foothill swimmers to compete against each other.
Yet the Dragons did not just win in races where they were unopposed by another team. Aside from defeating Grace Brethren 123-0 and 99-0, in the cases of the junior varsity girls and boys, respectively, the varsity Dragons beat their opponents as well. The girls won by 54 points, with a score of 87-33, while the boys won by 89 points, with a score of 112-23.
Despite this victory, York wished for his swimmers to take every opportunity to improve their skills and performances.
“[T]he league that we’re in is not super competitive, so I can’t say that we want to win, because we already did last year, and I’m pretty sure we will again this year,” said York, “so, for me, I want to see improvement from swimmer to swimmer, from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, just continual improvement, both technique- and time-wise.”
Varsity swimmer and junior Kevin Waechter noted that Wednesday’s meet was an opportunity for improving, as York put it, “the finer details.”
“Really, this is really more of a […] practice meet,” said Waechter. “[We’re] waiting for prelims and [league] finals […], so this meet is just more of a trial than anything right now.”
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However, varsity swimmer and sophomore Lily Armstrong did not let herself lose intensity simply because the competition was not as strong as in other meets.
“Well, since this is […] not as competitive as CIF, I just wanted to have fun with everyone. I swam events that I don’t usually swim, so I just wanted to get good times in those, and try and go fast in them, even though I don’t swim them a lot,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong views the meet against Grace Brethren as a stepping-stone to CIF, where she hopes to “redeem” herself for a less-than-satisfactory performance last year.
“I’ve been working really hard to [improve],” she said. “I’ve just been going to as many practices as I can, and I do club swimming also, […] and I do workouts at the gym. I’ve just been going non-stop until CIF so I do [well].”
Waechter also looks forward to CIF, but says he still has to work harder, as he did not meet the automatic CIF qualification time in his event during Wednesday’s meet.
“For me, it’s just kind of pushing myself to another level,” he said. “Otherwise, I just need to be able to dig deep and just kind of go all out.”
Even as the season draws to a close, some swimmers still want to make improvements to their times, as with the case of freshman and junior varsity swimmer Ian Canby.
“My goals really were just to improve my overall time and do the best I can with the abilities I have,” said Canby. “It’s toward the end of the season, so there’s not much I can really do to increase my endurance or speed, so [I want] to push my best times.”
However, no matter the outcome of the individual meets, the most important part of swimming, according to Waechter, is the positive atmosphere it fosters.
“My favorite part of swim is just feeling like everybody is a family, almost,” Waechter said. “To where everybody relies on each other and everybody has fun with each other, so it’s nice.”
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Background Photo Credit: Rachel Horiuchi / The Foothill Dragon Press
