Carlmont’s boys varsity swim team emerged victorious in their meet against Burlingame High School on Thursday, March 19. Though it appeared the Scots dominated the Panthers in almost every event, varsity girls fell 20 points short of a win.
The swimmers came out motivated and ready to race. Junior Lukas Kelly, son of junior varsity (JV) coach Jim Kelly, was chosen to lead the opening cheer. “We expected to win,” said Lukas Kelly. “Burlingame has been undefeated for the past three years, but we were confident in our ability.”
Both varsity teams push themselves each day in order to out-swim their competitors at meets. The sport is demanding, and requires an immense amount of physical endurance from the swimmers.
“Swimmers have so much to improve on: starts, turns, finishes, stroke technique, stamina. I’m always trying to get better in all of those aspects,” said Lukas Kelly.
A major goal for all varsity swimmers is to qualify for the Central Coast Section (CCS) Championship, held in May. At the meet, both upper and lower class men earned preliminary times.
“I swam 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle. I’m really happy that I qualified for CCS in both of them,” said senior Nico Camerino.
Senior Mariah Tao and her medley relay partners also qualified for CCS by swimming a 200 in just 1:55.
Despite achieving impressive times, the Scots did not forget to have fun.
Senior Taylor Sexton hopes to enjoy her final season of high school swim as much as possible.
“My goal is to have fun this year, since it is my last season swimming for Carlmont and I will be leaving for college,” said Sexton.
The Scots look forward to future meets and have confidence in their ability to out-swim their competitors.
“Our team goal is to win the league championship and go undefeated,” said Lukas Kelly. “I think we have a very good chance of accomplishing that.”
