Girls take first at TCAL, while boys take second
After watching her team cruise to a Tri County Athletic League
win last Saturday at Alvarez High School in Salinas, coach
Christine Schafer has high expectations for the San Benito High
girls swim team as it heads into today’s Central Coast Section
championships at Stanford University.
Girls take first at TCAL, while boys take second
After watching her team cruise to a Tri County Athletic League win last Saturday at Alvarez High School in Salinas, coach Christine Schafer has high expectations for the San Benito High girls swim team as it heads into today’s Central Coast Section championships at Stanford University.
“I’m hoping that three or four of our individual swimmers get into the consolation or finals races at CCS,” Schafer said. “I’m also hoping that the two relay teams make it into the finals.”
The top eight swimmers in each of the 12 events make it to the Section finals with the 9th- through 16th-place swimmers making the consolation races.
At the TCAL championships the Baler girls beat second-place Salinas High by a 405-359 margin while the Baler boys, with its team total of 268, finished second to the Cowboys 311-point total.
“Everyone expected the girls to win, and they did exactly what we all thought – they swam wonderful,” Schafer said. “I don’t think anyone expected the boys to do what they did. They swam phenomenally.”
Through the first 10 events, the Baler boys were actually tied with Salinas before falling behind for good in the second-to-last-relay of the day when the Balers were disqualified when a couple of swimmers jumped into the pool before other swimmers from other schools had completed the race.
During the regular season the Balers boys’ team, which was going for its third league title in a row, finished with a record of 6-1, losing only to the Cowboys of Salinas. The girls’ squad finished a perfect 7-0 in league.
Although the boys failed to three-peat as league champions, they did do well enough at the league finals to qualify another relay team to the Section championship.
In addition to fielding three relay teams, the Baler girls will send seven individual swimmers to the Section meet and the boys’ team will send two.
Those swimmers are Brandon Drogemuller and Steven Shattuck. At the TCAL finals Drogemuller won the 200 freestyle event with a time of 1:46.92 while Shattuck finished third in the 200IM, and, in the process, managed to shave six seconds off his personal best this season.
“Steven did unbelievably well,” Schafer said. “The boys had a lot of good races. In the 200 free Ryan Whiteside finished fourth and dropped seven seconds off his best time.”
Another impressive turnaround was when Jordan Schafer, the eighth seed heading into the 200-backstroke event, dropped six seconds off his personal best to finish second.
On the girls’ side, the wins came early and often. The team’s lone senior, Katie Buzzetta, captured the 50 freestyle race. Lacey Larson won the 200 free; freshman Salinas Stotler won the 200 IM. Baler standout Shellie Reed won both the 100 backstroke and the 100 butterfly – an event where San Benito High swimmers tapped the wall first, fourth, fifth and eighth. Demi Gatrell also won the 100 breaststroke and the 100 freestyle for the Balers.
Another impressive finish for the Lady Balers came in the 200 freestyle event where freshman swimmer Jessie Drogemuller was able to shave four second off her personal best to take third and qualify for CCS in the process. Drogemuller also dropped 12 seconds off her best time in the 500 free at the TCAL finals.
“We were totally stoked by her performance,” Schafer said. “She did really well.”
The boys’ team also was able to send senior Andrew Yacavone and junior Morris Stevens thanks to their solid efforts on the one-meter diving board.
