![“I wasn't discouraged by some of the obstacles we faced. I learned a lot from the leadership. I found that different people need different ways of receiving feedback — you can't [just] tell them to do something and expect the best. [Some] people needed more incentive. A large part of my role was to figure out what worked for everyone and to figure out how to lead all these separate individuals as a team,” Suhana Bhandare (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SuhanaBhandare_JasmineHansra-1-1200x798.jpg)
![“This is actually from Randy Pausch Randy P. Brick: ‘Walls are there for a reason. You have to show how much you want to overcome them.’ You have to show how much you want something. That's what I've always been able to do with tennis, Link Crew and getting that internship [with Kushy Baby]. It’s important pushing through that — getting around that brick wall, climbing over it or clawing through it,” Yash Sachdeva (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/YashSachdeva_RamBatchu-copy-1200x1002.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Varsity swimming competed in the West Bay Athletic League (WBAL) Jamboree #1 meet at Sacred Heart Preparatory, facing off against 10 schools including Sacred Heart, The King’s Academy and Menlo School on March 14.
The boys 200-yard medley team of sophomores Andrew Woon, Edmund Wang, Brandon Du and frosh Ethan Chen placed second with a time of 1:43:64, behind Sacred Heart, faster than the CCS requirement of 1:45.99 to qualify. In the girls’ event, seniors Janam Chahal and Shimeka Sahu, junior Eliana Chui and sophomore Amy Chen took second, trailing behind Sacred Heart with a time of 2:00.82.
Confident in the relay squad’s prior experience in Harker meets, Andrew broke down the team’s strategy and the favorable conditions of the meet.
“Sacred Heart has a really nice pool, so I knew we would be moving pretty fast,” Andrew said. “We’d been under the CCS cut last year and we returned a lot of our guys this year. Our individual times were under the cut as well, so we just had to execute our race plans. I got us out to a strong lead and we did a good job holding on until the last 50 yards.”
Eliana picked up a first-place finish in the girls 200-yard freestyle, winning 2:00.28 to finish below the CCS standard to qualify for the prelims. In the boys 200-yard freestyle, Wenjie Zou (12) placed third with a time of 1:47.33, also qualifying for CCS.
Frosh Chelsea Liu won the girls 100-yard individual medley (IM), and in the 200-yard IM, Amy finished second in 2:14.53 to qualify for CCS.
Amy also placed second in the girls 100 backstroke in 1:02.38, making CCS. In the boys 100 back, Andrew finished second, and sophomore Dennis Bi placed in third, both under the CCS standard of 56.99.
Dennis focused on maintaining speed through each phase of the race while looking to refine his underwater work for future events.
”I built the legs through it, maintained strong underwater dolphin kicks and a had a strong tempo all the way through the race,” Dennis said. “In future meets, I want more dolphin kicks off and be even better with building my speed.”
Brandon won the boys 100-yard butterfly event in 52.60, clearing the CCS cutoff by two seconds, and Wenjie followed with a third-place finish in 54.96.
In long-distance freestyle events, Eliana secured another first-place finish in the girls 500 freestyle, finishing in 5:21.92 for a second individual CCS qualification. The boys 200 freestyle relay team of Wenjie, Brandon, Edmund and Andrew finished second in 1:33.99, also qualifying for CCS.
Among the team’s younger swimmers, frosh Emma Jiang saw significant improvement, dropping time in the 50-yard breaststroke event.
“This is my first meet at Harker as a freshman in high school, and I’m pretty proud of dropping my time,” Emma said. “ Since the last time I timed it, I was able to drop 7 seconds, which was a major improvement for me. I’m looking forward to improving my time and dropping even more in the future.”
Varsity swimming assistant coach Chloe Limargo reflected on the strong results of the meet following Harker’s preparation.
“Overall, we’re doing really good,” Limbargo said. “Everybody is pumped and ready to be racing. We did a really good job with keeping track of everything. I’m looking forward to see how everybody grows, and this is a really strong starting point. So if this is how we’re starting, I can only imagine how we’re going to do for the rest of the season.”
Harker swimming will compete at the Jamboree #3B swim meet on Tuesday.
