Hollister High swept the Live Oak swimming pool with a water
broom last Friday as both the Baler girls and boys varsity teams
prevailed.
Hollister High swept the Live Oak swimming pool with a water broom last Friday as both the Baler girls and boys varsity teams prevailed.
The varsity girls won a tight 101-84 Tri-County Athletic League dual meet, while the Baler boys varsity won by a similar score – 104-81.
The Baler JV boys defeated the Acorns 72-41, but the Acorns took the JV girls meet 96-87.
The originally reported time of the varsity girls 400-free relay event of 3:24.18 was incorrect, according to Baler girls coach Derek Kisling. That mark would have shattered the school record.
“We didn’t go that fast,” said Kisling.
Kisling estimated the team of Britta Nordstrom, Stacey Lass, Janelle Brandon and Juliana Sih swam a winning time of “3:50 or 3:51,” 10 seconds ahead of the Acorns’ 4:00.15. The correct time would have been a Central Coast Section qualifying time, but Kisling can’t use it because it wasn’t official.
The Balers did have an official CCS qualifier in the 200-yard medley relay. The team of Kathryn Adamek (backstroke), Denise Simens (breaststroke), Lass (butterfly) and Erin Reed (freestyle) clocked 1:58.51.
Lass added a CCS qualifying time in the 500-free with a first place time of 5:29.01.
Kisling was worried when halfway through the meet the Balers were down 10 points.
“Then I remembered we’re stronger after the 500-free,” said Kisling.
The Balers took 1-2-4 in the 100-backstroke and 1-2-3 in the 100-breaststoke to put the meet away. Lass swam a 1:02.60 CCS in the 100-back with Adamek second and Reed fourth. Simens led the sweep in the 100-breast with a CCS time of 1:11.05. Sih was second and newcomer Betsy Shimer third.
Other firsts were Brandon, who swam a 2:07.1 in the 200-yard freestyle; Nordstrom, who clocked a CCS qualifying time in the 50-free at 26.02. Nordstrom also won the 100-free with a CCS time of 56.18; and the 200-free relay team, which clocked 1:47.94 for a CCS berth.
Jennifer Tremblay was second in the diving with a mark of 134.85.
Baler boys coach Joel Sims was excited about qualifying both of his freestyle relay teams for CCS. The quartet of Greg Henneman, NIk Barr, Greg Wilson and Christian Smith qualified in the 200-free relay with a time of 1:36.79 and the 400-free relay at 3:38.58.
Henneman had a big day, qualifying for CCS in the 50-free (22.55) and the 100-free (50.06). Other Baler firsts were from Barr in the 200-free (2:01.11), Smith in the 100-fly (1:00.00), Barr in the 100-back (1:05.6), and Robbie Shattuck in the 100-breaststroke (1:07.60). The 200-MR Baler team won with a time of 2:30.26.
Both Baler swim teams will be at Gilroy Friday.
