The swim team has exciting days ahead of them with qualifying swimmers for sections this year. On May 2, the qualifying swimmers will be racing at a college swim center in Sacramento. 

Sections is a sectional championship meet where qualifying swimmers compete against other swimmers who have made it. Not many get the opportunity to attend sections due to how quick one has to be for it. Section times are made clear to all swimmers prior to the season and those who put in enough work end up advancing to compete at the meet in May. 

Despite the difficulty of making section times, the Tigers swim team has managed to have three new swimmers attending this year who didn’t make it last year. So far, those attending are Samantha Pantoja (10), Edgar Vizcarra (11), Gannon Lemos (11), Philip Vander Poel (12), and James Savage (12). 

The boys listed above had a great start to their season and were able to make qualifying times for both the 200 yard freestyle relay and medley relay at their second meet of the season. While the 200 yard freestyle relay requires all boys doing the same stroke, the medley relay is more complex and utilizes all four strokes. To figure out who does what stroke, they timed their splits at practice and everybody was put into the strokes they were fastest at. The final verdict was: James- backstroke, Edgar- breaststroke, Gannon- butterfly, and Philip- freestyle. 

Gannon Lemos said, “I think the reason we have such a strong relay is because when James starts with his undulation for backstroke, he gives us a huge lead with the distance because he’s able to go underwater.”

Alongside the boys will be Samantha Pantoja racing in both the 100 yard butterfly and 100 yard backstroke. This is Pantoja’s second time attending sections meaning she’s going into sections with experience and even more drive to come out on top. James Savage is also returning for his third year at sections and will be competing in the 500 yard freestyle, 200 yard freestyle, 200 IM, 100 backstroke as well as his two relays.