Swim dives in at La Sierra for first meet of the 2022 season
Teams were unable to defeat the home team Eagles, but individual performances point towards a strong season ahead
La’Niece Pacheco springs out to a great start during the girls’ 4×200 freestyle relay in yesterday’s meet against La Sierra High School.
Riverside, CA—Colton’s “small, but mighty” swim team traveled to La Sierra High School yesterday to take on the Eagles in their first swim meet of the 2022 season. With a squad packed with first time swimmers, both boys and girls varsity teams took the loss, but showed tons of promise.
Boys varsity lost 57-45, and the girls lost 101-41.
Varsity girls’ co-captain Mariah Perez was excited by what she saw from her teammates in the water. “I am proud of our team, and I think we can push ourselves even more for our next meet.”
Head coach Elise Thomas, agreed. “They did pretty good. There are some things they need to improve on. All we can go is up.” Then she added, “A lot of them really brought it. Their first times are decent.”
The Yellowjacket swimmers put up some quality times for the first meet of the season. For the girls, their 4×50 freestyle relay team, featuring La’Niece Pacheco, August Castillo, Mariah Perez, and Brooke Carlson, took first place with a time of 2:20.94.
Individual standouts for Colton included junior Larissa Lopez, who, in her first meet placed second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:56. August Castillo and Kaila Garcia raced neck-and-neck in the 100 breaststroke, both earning times of 1:39.12 and 1:39.92 respectively. And in the 50 freestyle, Jasmin Almazan placed second with a time of 39:06.
The boys, with a much smaller team, fought hard against the Eagles. Both freestyle relay teams finished second, but the 4×50 team of Isaiah Ramirez, Raul Alvarado, Adrian Luna, and Xavier Rocha, finished with an admirable time of 2:21.82.
Individually, the boys were led by Xavier Rocha, who placed first in 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke with times of 2:39.75 and 1:22.12. Isaiah Ramirez also placed first in both his individual events, 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke, coming in at 1:05.94 and 1:22.69. Raul Alvarado placed first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:54.62.
“I felt like I did pretty well, but I could have done better,” Xavier Rocha said, noting that he improved in the 200 medley by more than 12 seconds from last season.
Also of note for this meet was junior Katrina Olivas, who raced as JV in the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke. “She’s a work in progress,” said coach Thomas. “She did really well for her first meet.”
The next meet for the Yellowjackets is on March 10 at Carter High School. Start time is 3:15 p.m.
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