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Upper school swim team competes against other schools in invitational swim meet
Vivian Wang (10) comes up for air during her 100 yard breaststroke. This was the second invitational and the fourth meet of the season.
March 20, 2016
The upper school swim team participated at the Small School invitational at Sacred Heart Prep yesterday at 9 a.m.
Swimmers competed in a variety of relay and individual races, including the 400 yard relay for boys and girls and other events ranging from 50 to 500 yards distances.
The 200 Medley Relay team consisting of Grace Guan (12), Karen Tu (12), Taylor Kohlmann (10) and Vivian Wang (10) placed 2nd with a CCS qualifying time of 1:57.59. Vivian also made CCS qualifying times in both her individual events, placing 2nd in the 100 breaststroke and winning the 100 butterfly and Alex Yu (9) also placed first in his individual 500 freestyle.
Tania Chadwick, head coach of the swim team, reflected on the group’s performance today and her goals for the rest of the season going into CCS.
“I think everyone battled through today, it might not have been their best swims but they’re all dealing with AP week requirements this week at school, so I think we had some swimmers that were a little bit more tired than usual but they didn’t give up, they worked hard,” Chadwick said. “My hopes are that all swimmers will have best times by the end of the season, those that are close to CCS cuts make those cuts, and that we bring more people to CCS in general.”
Karen, who is the captain and has been a part of the swim team since her freshman year, explained how these first few swim meets in the season as well as practices have been helping the swimmers train and strengthen their skills going forward into the season.
“Especially for the people who aren’t competitive swimmers, we’re getting back into shape and so in practices, we’ve been doing longer work and building up our endurance,” Karen said. “I hope to do better towards the end of the season and there’s a lot to look forward to; it’s my senior year so I hope that it’ll end well.”
Michael Auld (11) dives into the water as the last leg of the boys 400 yard freestyle relay with other team members Jack Farnham (11), Alex Yu (9) and Justin Culpepper (11).
Michael Auld (11), who has also been part of the swim team since his freshman year, plans to take the rest of the season easy as he already made his CCS cuts earlier in the season.
“I got my CCS cuts early, [but] when CCS comes around, I’m going to try to go for the school record. If I get it, I’ll get a second swim at CCS so that’s good,” Michael said.
The team will participate in another swim meet next Wednesday at Sacred Heart Prep.
