Shortly after Saturday’s Tri-County Athletic League swim
championships at Live Oak High, Hollister High head girls coach
Derek Kisling was tossed into the pool by his swimmers as if they
had won the league title.
The Balers hadn’t then. Now they have.
Shortly after Saturday’s Tri-County Athletic League swim championships at Live Oak High, Hollister High head girls coach Derek Kisling was tossed into the pool by his swimmers as if they had won the league title.
The Balers hadn’t then. Now they have.
Because of the way the league format was set up with each team swimming against each other twice in the new six-team league, each team was awarded two points for a dual meet win. That total would be added to points determined at the league meet, none of which had anything to do with the team scoring. At the league meet, each team was awarded three points for each team it finished ahead of.
Doing the math, Hollister won all 10 dual meets for 20 points. It finished ahead of four teams for 12 points for a total of 32. Live Oak, which won the league meet by 56 points, won eight dual meets for 16 points. The Acorns finished ahead of five teams at the league meet for 15 more points and a total of 31 points.
Final score in the team standings – Hollister 32, Live Oak 31.
Seems the Baler girls knew what they were doing all along.
“They were just proud of what they accomplished,” said Kisling as to why he got drenched unexpectedly. “They were just celebrating a satisfying season.”
Patty Lamar, the T-CAL rep and head girls coach at Salinas High, said “all the Balers had to do was show up” and they would have would have been league champions.
“We knew before the league season started that we might have a problem because there was a new league but the bylaws weren’t changed,” said Lamar. “We brought the issue to the league commissioner and he said there was nothing we could do. It was too late. He told us to stick with it for a year. We’ve already changed the format next year in that teams will only swim against each other once.”
Kisling was unaware of the suddent, yet pleasant, turn of events until he was contacted by the Free Lance office Monday night.
“I was adding those points into the team total,” said Kisling as to why he didn’t feel his team was the champs at first. “We won over half the events, but Live Oak killed us with its depth. They were placing four swimmers in all those early events, racking up points. That’s how we won it last year.”
Next year, the Baler girls will be shooting for their third-straight swim title and will be well aware of the water rules beforehand.
