By Elise Tran, Staff Writer
On April 11, the boys and girls varsity swim team went up against Newport Harbor High School. A victory along with a strong lead was carried out by the girls swim team with a score of 106-64. The boys swim team struggled to rise to the top with a loss of 102-68.
Abigail Nelson (‘18), Hannah Farrow (’19) and Samantha Soriano (‘17) raced in the 100 breaststroke. Farrow had an apparent lead finishing two seconds ahead of Nelson, the runner-up, with a 1:07.79 and Nelson earned a 1:09.54. From the audience, chants of “Go!” could be heard to the tempo of the breaststroke as Soriano was fighting to get the team to win all across the board. It was up to the last few seconds, but Soriano fell short getting fourth with a 1:10.49.
“I think we did really strong considering this is only our almost second-to-last swim meet and then we have our spring break training. So, I think this week we’re just going to be working really hard so we can come back and beat Los [Alamitos High School] and then go into league and see what happens and have fun,” said Soriano.
Farrow competed in the 100 backstroke trying to keep her lead throughout the whole race, but slowed down due to getting too close to the lane line. Cassie Koger (‘19) was just a hair behind Farrow fighting for the top spot along with another Newport swimmer. Each stroke mattered as it came down to the last few meters when Koger pushed ahead of the Newport swimmer and Farrow kept her slight lead. Farrow finished with a 1:02.22 and Koger finished with a 1:02.66.
In a grueling match of the 500 freestyle, the audience shouted and got riled up in the last 25 meters as Anthony Pham (’17) and a Newport Harbor competitor were neck and neck to the last movement when all eyes turned to the scoreboard. Pham had got a 4:53.64, only 90 milliseconds away from the winner.
In the 200 individual medley, Pham pushed ahead right away and by the third stroke, the breaststroke, he was six seconds ahead of second place. He continued to create a larger gap between his competitors and earned a 2:03.29. Brandon Bees (‘18) struggled at the start putting him in last in the first 50 meters, but used his technique and power to catch up and make his way towards second getting a 2:11.03.
“I feel like our girls really showed up really well like they always do. They’ve been practicing really hard and giving it everything they got. We have some work to do on our varsity boys. I think we’ve got the depth and what that means is we’ve got girls that are good all across the board,” said Kyle Naumann, the varsity head coach. “We’ve got a lot of boys that are really good too. Just need to try a little harder I think, but it was a good meet.”
