The swim team’s medley relay team qualified for CCS finals for the first time in 10 years and placed 16th overall on May 10 in CCS finals, which is the round that determines if players go on to states, according to Athletics Director Joanna Butcher in an email. The varsity swim team had 7 people across all relay team events and solo events qualify for a CCS event this year, according to Butcher.
The swim team showed a lot of improvement from top to bottom this year in overall speed and results, even outside of the ones who qualified to CCS, swim captain and senior Kai Pham said.
“Last year, we were dead last in the league, and this year we went to second, and we placed in the finals for CCS,” Pham said.
In previous years, the swim team would barely qualify to CCS through the use of $400 tech suits or fully tapered rest that gave them an advantage by releasing drag, but this year, they already had a fast enough time to make CCS very early on, he said.
“So, any team or person that qualifies for a specific event qualifies for an event in CCS,” Pham said. “For example, 100 yards is 49 seconds. If you hit 49 seconds, you qualify for CCS, and the top 16 for each event qualify for finals. So we knew we would be good because we hit the qualifying time by 4 seconds in the first meet without tech suits or rest.”
A lot of their success this season in CCS came from other swimmers, like Kerem Bakmaz, stepping up to fill in for the 200 freestyle relay, Pham said. Two freshmen on the team, Spencer Liu and Forrest Lin, were also a huge part in making CCS finals as two swimmers in their medley relay, he said.
“Our two freshmen, Forrest and Spencer, are very dedicated to the sport,” Pham said. “They did a lot of work and motivated us to improve and get faster.”
Liu started swimming when he was 8 years old, mainly to get into shape for basketball, but later on, he decided to start swimming more competitively when he was 11, he said. Liu thought he did well this season, improving his overall swimming to qualify for CCS finals as part of the medley relay and for the individual backstroke event, he said.
“During the swim season, I came in having not trained for three months because I was playing school basketball,” Liu said. “With help from my coaches, I got back into condition by practicing and making steady progress throughout our swim meets and eventually got my first CCS cut time.”
The swimmers who qualified for CCS had a different training regimen that included rest days before and after preliminaries to rest after all other meets in preparation for CCS, Liu said.
“A typical day consisted of a long warmup to reduce lactic acid in our bodies and then a brief kickset,” Liu said. “Then, we had some speedwork with 50s. There was also dive work and working on our technique. The main goal was to taper and essentially rest our bodies for CCS.”
In the medley relay, the first person swims backstroke, then the next person swims breaststroke, then the third person swims butterfly, and the final person swims freestyle, senior Kaden Rosa said. The relays, despite having individual swimmers, do still involve some teamwork, as leaving early can get you disqualified, he said.
“The biggest thing is knowing exactly when to leave for the person in front of you in your relay based on how fast they usually swim, and practicing relay dives all season helps,” Rosa said.
Junior Justin Lin competed in the 100-meter fly event at CCS and was also a part of the medley relay, he said. He went up nearly 40 places this year compared to last year to get around 10 spots away from CCS finals, mainly due to putting in much more effort and disciplining himself this year, he said.
“Everything I do is consistent,” Lin said. “I’m like the tide, time in and time out. Everything I do is consistent, from when I eat, to when I sleep, to my loved ones, everything I do is consistent.”
All in all, the swim season was very fun, partly because of a good team atmosphere and also because of having the best team success they have ever seen, Pham said.
“Just hanging around with the team, being with friends, and working towards the same goal was an amazing feeling,” Pham said. “Actually winning meets this year made that even better.”