Coaches: Sergio Dorrego (head coach), Jordan Jaime (assistant coach), Andrea Lantz (assistant coach), Amanda Shaw (assistant coach)
Top Returners: Mia Carley (12), Caelyn Feetham (12), Gianna Garcia (12), Eveline Grannis (11), Troy Jung (10), David Kim (10), Miles Kim (12), Zeliyah Lazarit (10), Jessica Luna (12), Cheney Mo (11), Rohan Parker (11), James Sy (12), Liam Weinreich (12), Isabella Zia (10)
Top Newcomers: Joshua Kwak (11), Lauren Jacobsen (11), Abby Reekstin (11), Claire Yoo (9)
Last Season: The girls ended with its sixth consecutive — 10th overall — Freeway League title (5-0 in league and 2-1 in non-league). Their non-league loss came against Villa Park High School. Individually, Eden Buell, Samantha Burgess, Carley, Feetham, Grannis, Luna and Zia qualified for CIF prelims. Buell, Burgess, Carley and Grannis qualified for finals.
The boys placed second in the Freeway League (4-1 in league and 1-2 in non-league), and they qualified for CIF. For individual swimmers, Daniel Kim, David Kim, Mo, Sy, Casey Shin and Weinreich qualified for CIF prelims. Daniel Kim, David Kim, Shin and Weinreich qualified for the finals.
The team had one diver, Katie Larson, who graduated in the 2023-2024 school year. She was crowned Freeway League champion for diving but did not qualify for CIF.
Outlook: Besides being in a revamped league like all other sports this school year, one major change the swimmers will face concerns the lack of divers. In fact, none.
“Not having a diver just means we don’t get any points for the diving event,” Dorrego said. “Out of the 15 teams in our conference, only five have divers and we are in the same league as two of those schools. All this means is that those teams with divers get six extra points when calculating the overall score between the swim meet and dive meet.”
According to the coach, the team was not able to recruit any divers this year since the sport is challenging itself and could lead to many possible injuries.
“It is hard to convince swimmers and water polo players who have never done dive to compete in a sport that could cause them to miss a couple weeks in the pool because of an injury,” Dorrego said. “All of the divers that I have seen since I have coached here have had previous dive experience prior to high school.”
Individual medley and freestyle swimmer Lazarit believed that the team having no divers wasn’t a huge concern.
“Having no divers this season isn’t the end of the world either since we have a great majority of competitive swimmers,” she said. “Hopefully, by next season, we will have a good amount of divers.”
On the contrary, Mo expressed dissatisfaction for the lack of divers.
“I’m a little bit disappointed that we don’t have any divers to represent Sunny, so I’m hoping that our girls and guys swim this year can step up and represent our aquatics program fully by potentially winning league and placing high in our respective CIF divisions,” he said.
According to Dorrego, the Lancers’ performance last year placed them into a new Freeway League — the same name but no opponents residing in Fullerton Joint Union High School District — against Brea Olinda in Brea, Crean Lutheran in Irvine, Cypress and El Dorado in Placentia.
Following the Lady Lancers’ six-year win streak, the team hopes to continue this trend as the highest-ranked team in terms of points in the Freeway League. The girls, who are in Division 1, strive to place in the top two overall.
Although the Lancers have been moved from Division 2 to Division 3, they still hope to qualify for CIF.
“Since 2018, our girls have been Freeway League champions, and since that time, our boys have gotten second place, so still placing pretty high,” Dorrego said. “We’re just always working hard to do the best we can and hopefully that translates to this new league as well.”
The coach hopes for the athletes to improve their will to swim events outside of their comfort zone, consistently practicing since September after Labor Day and swimming every weekday to improve strokes and speed.
“Off-season, we mainly do a lot of freestyle to build up endurance,” Dorrego said. “We throw some stroke work in there to develop these swimmers into people who can swim any stroke.”
The coach said that out of the new schools competing, two stood out the most competitively: Brea Olinda and Crean Lutheran.
“Crean Lutheran is a private school, and private schools are always tough to go against,” Dorrego said. “They have a very strong boys team and a competitive girls team. Looking at the power rankings now, I actually see that Brea Olinda has the closest power ranking to us, so they may be challenging as well.”
Leader and freestyle and breaststroke swimmer Sy hopes to adjust to the new season and its competitors.
“I feel like it’ll definitely be a little bit of a struggle, but I think we can get through it,” the senior said. “I kind of want to go out with a bang.”
Although the team has no assigned captains, the coach said he refers to the seniors in the team as leaders who assist the team.
“We encourage seniors to become positive role models for their younger teammates,” Dorrego said. “They help lead the cheer before swim meets and set an example of how others should act both during practice and at swim meets.”
“It is my last season, and I’m just excited to see what the new league brings for us and how we can learn from these experiences for the upcoming freshmen,” leader and backstroke and freestyle swimmer Garcia said. “I would want to tell them more about my experiences because I’ve been here for four years, so I want to be that source of support and ask me questions.”
The team will have its first non-league meet of the season on Wednesday, Feb. 26, away from home against Troy High School. The first league meet of the season will be on Wednesday, March 26.
