The Palo Alto High School varsity girls’ swimming swept first place in the majority of the races against Saratoga High School Wednesday, 111-74, in its last Santa Clara Valley Athletic League home meet.
After a disappointing loss to cross-town rival Gunn nearly two weeks before, the Lady Vikes hit their stride with the help of lead swimmers Sarah Liang (’11) and Jasmine Tosky (’12), who the team missed in the earlier meet against Gunn because of a previously committed swimming national swimming competition in Columbus, Ohio. Working towards CCS, the team is hopeful that it will win its next meet with Gunn.
“Losing to Gunn put us back, but we’ll get another chance in the three weeks,” 400 relay and 100 freestyle swimmer Sabrina Lee (’11) said. “With a full squad we won’t disappoint.”
Although further qualifying them for Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs, the sluggish win over Saratoga reminded the Lady Vikes that in order to put away Gunn High School and earn a higher seed in CCS, they would have to make up the training they lost during Spring Break. Coach Danny Dye recognizes that the team put out a strong enough effort to clinch the win, but that the swimmers did not compete to the best of their abilities due to a lack of commitment during Spring Break.
“Coming out of spring break it’s important that we maintain our yards in the pool and fix up the little things, like technique on our starts and breathing patterns,” Dye said.
In the freestyle swims events, the Lady Vikes pulled out formidable times in the 100 and 200 freestyles as well as the 100 butterfly. Tosky commanded the 200 freestyle, coming in at 1:55:70, nearly six seconds faster than the second place time. In the 100 freestyle, Tosky and Lee both finished with times that qualify them CCS cam.
Owning with consecutive CCS qualifying times in various relays including the 400 and 500 butterfly, the Vikings dominated Saratoga by placing first in the 400 freestyle relay.
At the Sectional Challenge annual invitational meet all day on Saturday, April 24 at the MacKenzie Aquatic Center in Palo Alto, the Lady Vikes won 266-261.5 in races against North Coast and San Joaquin Section defending champs, including powerhouse Archbishop Mitty.
