Coaches: Sergio Dorrego (head coach), Jordan Jaime (assistant coach), Andrea Lantz (assistant coach), Amanda Shaw (assistant coach)
Top Returners: Cayenne Bagnol (11), Eden Buell (12), Samantha Burgess (12), Mia Carley (12), Eveline Grannis (10), Daniel Kim (12), David Kim (12), Miles Kim (11), Cheney Mo (10), Rohan Parker (10), James Sy (11), Liam Weinreich (11)
Top Newcomers: Kennedy Dom (10), Ricardo Garcia (10), Zachamiah Garcia (12), Zeliyah Lazarit (9), Isabella Zia (9)
Last Season: The boys swim and dive team placed second in the Freeway League and finished 4-1 overall, qualifying for CIF. The Lady Lancers were undefeated, making them Freeway League champions, also qualifying for CIF. Both teams finished 7-1 overall.
Outlook: Both teams hope to continue their success from the previous school year, especially since this will be the last time they will face all of the schools in the Freeway League because of releaguing next season.
“Last season was really good; our girls were undefeated in the Freeway League, and they ended up being the Freeway League champions,” Dorrego said. “Our boys …got second place overall in the Freeway League last year.”
Following the boys’ loss against Troy High School last season, the team hopes to bring home a victory against the Warriors.
“We [are working] on different aspects of swimming each day and focus on diving and turns on days before swim meets,” Dorrego said.
Returner Sy’s main goal is to improve his stroke times and qualify into the final bracket after CIF.
“I’ve been taking lots of pointers from peers and trying out their styles and techniques, mainly just focusing on putting in effort where I can,” he said.
Despite entering the varsity team in her first year of high school, Lazarit earned the title as one of the top newcomers.
“Lazarit is a club swimmer and brings the ability to swim every stroke well and have impressive speed in the sprint events,” the coach said. “She could be put into any event and be successful.”
Dorrego also praised senior Katie Larson, who has been on the team since 9th grade, for being the only diver on the team.
“Katie represents the diving part of the ‘swim and dive’ team,” the coach said. “She scores points for the girls team through her diving events, and those points are combined with the swim points when competing against other schools.”
Larson plans on competing in the Freeway League and CIF this season.
“Katie has a sixth period class, which makes it hard for her to make it to club practices after school, but she found a way to make it fit into her schedule and I am very happy for it,” the coach said.
Dorrego said most schools district have only one or two divers, if any at all, giving the Lancers an advantage with Larson as a diver this year
“Having a diver gives the swim team an advantage because she scores points for the swim team before the swim meet even starts,” Dorrego said.
The team’s first Freeway League meet was on Wednesday, March 13 against the Sonora Raiders where the boys ended with 115-28 while the Lady Lancers finished with 131-38. The next match was against Fullerton High School on Wednesday, March 27 in which the Lancers went 116-52 and the Lady Lancers ended 124-45.
