In its last Santa Clara Valley Athletic League home meet of the season, the Palo Alto High School boys’ varsity swimming team defeated Saratoga High School, 115-68, on Wednesday, sending its seniors off with a ceremony, gifts, and a victory.
Despite the after-effects of spring break and the unfavorable weather conditions that hindered individual performances, swimmers said that a mix of luck and tough training during the past three days helped the team defeat Saratoga.
“It was really cold so everyone had a tough time,” sophomore Charles Zhang said. “It was really intense because they had really fast people but we just got lucky.”
Because the meet took place three days after a week-long break, head coach Danny Dye emphasized the importance of swimmers’ attendance at practices over school vacations.
“The guys did what they needed to do to win, but it is obvious that not as much work was done that should have been done over spring break,” Dye said.
Despite attaining only three individual wins, the Vikings won two freestyle relays.
In the 50-yard freestyle event, junior Arseniy Kotov and senior team captain Bobby Abbott took first and second place with times of 23.12 and 23.60 seconds respectively. In the 100-yard free, Kotov and Abbott secured second and third place with times of 50.44 and 53.60 seconds.
As the meet progressed, the boys dominated the 100-yard butterfly, filling up all top three places on the scoreboard. Junior D.J. Fotsch lead the pack, finishing in 58.47 seconds, followed by sophomore Corso Rosati in 59.37 seconds and freshman Derek Tam in 1:02.70.
Sophomore team captain Byron Sanborn left the competition behind with his Central Coast Section qualifying time of 1:02.84 in the 100-yard breaststroke. Sophomore Charles Zhang secured second place behind his teammate with the time 1:07.30.
During the last event of the meet, the 400-yard free relay, the Paly boys’ “A” team trailed close behind the Saratoga team in the adjacent lane, until Sanborn flip-turned into the last lap a head behind Saratoga. Sanborn picked up speed and stretched out his arms, touching the wall 0.2 seconds before the leading rival swimmer. The “A” teams from both schools swam CCS qualifying times, with Paly holding a time of 3:24.30 and Saratoga close behind with 3:24.50.
“I was just trying to catch the guy,” Sanborn said. “They messed up on their start so it gave us a chance to win.”
The boys will train hard during the rest of the week such as swimming 100 x 100-yards in one practice, according to Rosati, to prepare for the upcoming Section Challenge taking place this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Paly. Many top schools will compete in the meet, including Sacred Heart Preparatory, Archbishop Mitty, Harker School, Monta Vista High School and Bellarmine Preparatory.