The Palo Alto High School boys’ and girls’ swimming teams wrapped up their seasons after the girls’ swimming team placed second and the boys placed fourth at the California Interscholastic Federation State Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend in Clovis. The diving team did exceptionally well too, with senior diver Mimi Lin placing first at the Central Coast Section Championships and the state meet as well. Senior diver Reed Merritt also captured the boys’ diving CCS title.

According to senior swim captain Kayleigh Svensson, the team has done a great job this season and has worked extremely hard to do well.

“It was a wonderful end to the season, and to my time here at Paly,” Svensson said. “I’m incredibly proud of our girls this year. We’ve worked through a lot of hardships, but we did well.”

According to Svensson, junior swimmer Alex Liang won two events in Clovis, setting state records in the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle.

Although the boys swim team did not place first, junior swimmer Andrew Jozefov said that this season was more than just getting the best times. It was also about bonding with the team.

“A lot of people had some huge time drops and although we came up just short of our goals we can’t be unhappy with [our] new best times,” Jozefov said. “It was a lot of fun spending time with my teammates this season.”

As for the diving team, senior diving captain Mimi Lin said that she believes this was the best year for the diving team that she has seen at Paly.

“I think this is one of the most successful seasons since I’ve been here,” Lin said. “Not because of the placings, but because of how much we improved as a team.”

Svensson echoed the same sentiment for the swimming team.

“I think we had a great season as a team. I’ll miss having them around next year,” Svensson said.