On a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Foothill’s swim teams prevailed through their “off events” when they competed in their second league meet against Saint Bonaventure High School at the Ventura Aquatics Center. The Varsity Dragons both defeated the Seraphs with a final score of 112-33 for boys and 85-51 for girls.
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Taking advantage of the sunny Wednesday afternoon, Foothill’s swim teams prevailed through their “off events” when they competed in their second league meet against Saint Bonaventure High School at the Ventura Aquatics Center on April 6. The Varsity Dragons both defeated the Seraphs with a final score of 112-33 for boys and 85-51 for girls.

Head Coach Jason York felt that the team swam well although they were not competing in their usual comfortable races.

“I was very proud of the way that the team swam today because they challenged themselves by swimming in events they don’t normally swim in, [which] we call […] ‘off events’” said York.

Junior and co-captain Kevin Waechter participated in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 6:03.70 in first place, but also challenged himself by trying to break the CIF Automatic Time Standard in the 50 freestyle, in order to compete in the championship meet.

He narrowly missed the required 23.1 time standard by 1.43 seconds, receiving a time of 24.43.

Sophomore Josie Thorp swam in the 100 Fly and the 100 Free with times of 1:12.30 and 1:01.05, respectively, and finished first in both races. She felt that her only challenge was having to swim her “off events.”

“I think that swimming an off event, [which is] something that’s not your [usual] event, is really challenging,” she said. “You don’t know how to go at it, you don’t have your strategy you don’t know what to expect, but you still have to go in and give your best effort.”

Although the team won, York feels the team still has things they could work on in order to improve their times.

“I think that there’s small technical things that don’t necessarily make them go faster, but they’re still incorrect, and sometimes they’ll get disqualified on some of the finer nuances,” said York.

York also felt “proud” that the junior varsity team had an especially strong meet since they received low times in races that they otherwise wouldn’t compete in.

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“I was impressed with the junior varsity swimmers because they were so much improved,” York said. “A lot of the parents and told me, ‘I can’t believe that’s them, they look so much different than they did a month and a half ago when they first started.’”

Thorp agrees with York and believes that the team, as a whole, did great despite swimming different races than they were use to.

“I think today we did great as a team since, even though we were swimming in our off events, we all tried hard in our own ways,” said Thorp.

York feels that the team is doing well overall and is confident in them as they head into California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division IV Championship Meet, like last year.

“I’m very confident that they will [swim] lifetime best times,” he said. “I am very confident that they will win the [Frontier] League [Championship meet], and I’m confident that their stroke techniques will show great improvements from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.”

Junior Evan Somma participated in the 200 yard Individual Medley (IM) and the 100 yard breaststroke with times of 2:31.95 in second place and 1:11.95 in first place respectively.

He thought the varsity team swam well and hopes they continue their success throughout the season.

“I’m hoping that our season keeps going well and that everyone keeps doing their best,” said Somma.

Sophomore Alex Abele also swam the 200 yard Individual Medley and the 100 yard breaststroke with times of 2:40.58 and 1:23.20 respectively, and won third in both.

He believes that overall the team did well and tried their hardest, and gives “thanks” to the parents and coaches for making the meet possible.

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“There is not one athlete on this team that I don’t think is a winner,” he said. “By that I’d like to say that […] everyone did relatively well.”

“Some people were a little bit mismatched, but everyone did well,” considering that they were competing in their “off events,” he continued. “It was lit.”

Background Photo Credit: Rachel Horiuchi / The Foothill Dragon Press