The Paly boys’ swim team is stepping up its intensity after tying with the Los Gatos Wildcats in the first dual of the season on Friday at Los Gatos High School.
“It was too close,” senior co-captain Tim Wenzlau said. “It was a shocker. In past years, no one has ever come close to us. It was a wake up call for the rest of the season.”
The Vikings have been Santa Clara Valley Athletic League champions for the last five years, and were disappointed by the results of the meet. Head coach Danny Dye believes that there is room for improvement.
“The boys did an alright job,” Dye said. “They weren’t really ready for the meet. It was close. If one person had finished differently, or focused more in practice, we might have seen a different result.”
The meet got off to a rough start when the boys’ 200-yard medley relay team placed second. Wenzlau, freshman Byron Sanborn, junior Ian Schubert, and senior co-captain Mark Higgins swam on the A-medley relay team for Paly, and finished with a time of 1:41.34. The A-relay team from Los Gatos placed first with a time of 1:40.03. Both relay teams finished with times that qualify them for the Central Coast Section [CCS] meet.
“It was tight until the end,” senior Thomas Cho said. “We had a few good swims, and a few disappointing ones as well.”
Following some unsatisfactory finishes in the first half of the meet, the Vikings picked up the pace.
“The back half of the meet was better than the front half,” senior co-captain Jamie Nakamura said.
Higgins placed first in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 4:47.64, qualifying him for CCS. Wenzlau placed first in the 100-yard backstroke, with a CCS-qualifying time of 53.56 seconds.
The Paly boys placed first, second, and third in the 100-yard breaststroke. Sanborn won the race with the CCS-qualifying time of 1:02.26, freshman Rollin Lau placed second, with a time of 1:06.98, followed by Cho in third place at 1:07.98.
The Paly boys placed second in the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay, after an intense race. Sophomore Arseniy Kotov, Wenzlau, Sanborn, and Higgins swam on Paly’s A-relay team. Paly trailed behind Los Gatos for most of the race. Higgins anchored the relay and closed the gap between Paly and Los Gatos. The Paly relay team finished less than a second behind Los Gatos, with a time of 3:16.50. The Los Gatos relay team completed the race in 3:15.77, and both relay teams finished with CCS-qualifying times. Higgins swam the final 100 yards of the relay in 46.41 seconds.
Paly’s B-relay team for the 400-yard freestyle relay, composed of junior Bobby Abbott, freshman Corso Rosati, sophomore DJ Fotsch, and Lau, placed fourth. They finished in 3:35.95 and qualified for CCS.
“It was really close,” Higgins said. “All the guys gave it their all, but we didn’t come out on top. But we’ll see what happens at Leagues.”
Next up for the Vikings is the dual meet against Monta Vista High School. Monta Vista will be one of Paly’s main competitors for the league title, according to Dye.
The Paly boys’ swim team will face off against Monta Vista after school on Friday at Monta Vista.