As soon as the final event of the Tri-County Athletic League
championships ended Saturday at Alvarez High, the San Benito boys
swimming team had one thing on its mind
– getting coach Leif Nordstrom thrown into the pool.
Salinas – As soon as the final event of the Tri-County Athletic League championships ended Saturday at Alvarez High, the San Benito boys swimming team had one thing on its mind – getting coach Leif Nordstrom thrown into the pool.
The only problem was that the Haybalers boys 400-yard freestyle relay team had won the final event by such a large margin over the final two teams, which touched the wall some 90-plus seconds later, that they had to be reminded several times to wait until the race was over to throw him in.
Fortunately, that gave them time to make their work easier by moving a table out of the way and getting lined up for the perfect toss. They did so and that served as the exclamation mark to San Benito’s second straight TCAL boys swimming title.
The ‘Balers were dominant throughout, taking first in nine of the 12 events while racking up 560 team points. Salinas was a distant second at 403, followed by Palma at 376, Gilroy at 257, Alvarez at 185, North Salinas at 76 and Alisal at 50.
“We had some really awesome individual times today,” Nordstrom said. “That reflects well on those who have been finishing strong in practice.”
The San Benito girls were even more dominant at the top – winning 10 of the 12 events – but Salinas took advantage of its depth and scored critical points in the second through sixth places to earn the team title. The Cowboys recorded a team score of 567 to beat the ‘Balers 524. Notre Dame (302), Gilroy (247), North Salinas (147), Alvarez (138) and Alisal (74) rounded out the scoring.
Nordstrom figured the relay events might be enough to boost the girls into the top spot and thought it could come down to the final event – the 400 freestyle relay. That race proved to never be close and the ‘Balers raced to the finish in a time of 3:48.98, nearly 12 seconds better than second-place Salinas.
“I thought that would be the difference-maker,” Nordstrom said.
But despite San Benito sweeping the three relay events, the Cowboys, whose only wins came in the 200 freestyle and diving, racked up enough points to take the team title for the first time since the mid-90’s.
One of the most impressive swims on the day came from sophomore Brandon Drogemuller, who won two events in addition to swimming on two winning relays. In the 500 freestyle, he beat the CCS qualifying mark by more than 20 seconds. His time of 4:49.09 topped the qualifying time of 5:10.99.
“I started out pretty good but got tired half way through,” Drogemuller said. “I kind of knew I could do it. I just swam and it happened.”
San Benito senior David Smith just missed All-American consideration on his two victorious events.
He won he 50 freestyle in 21.67, which was just short of the 21.55 consideration time. In the 100 freestyle, his time of 47.34 was also less than 2/10 off the consideration time of 47.18.
“He’s just peaking right now,” Nordstrom said of Smith, who also swam the anchor on the 400 freestyle relay team. “I think he could challenge that at CCS.”
The CCS semifinals begin at 11am Friday at Stanford. The finals begin at 1pm Saturday.
Blaine Curtice also snagged two league titles, winning the 200 IM in 2:03.26 and the 100 butterfly in 54.87, in addition to swimming on the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay teams.
On the girls side, freshman Demi Gatrell, sophomore Shelli Reed and junior Katie Buzzetta each won two events. Additionally, Reed swam on all three victorious relay teams. Gatrell swam on the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay and Buzzetta was on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
“The girls are so balanced at the top,” Nordstrom said.
Sophomore Lacey Larson added a win in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:30.09, beating out Salinas’ Sam Aguayo by about a second.
“She didn’t expect to be pushed but she rose to the occasion,” Nordstrom said.
Nordstrom also credited the work of sophomore Megan Geary, who was on a pair of winning relay teams and added a third-place finish in the 200 IM and a fifth-place finish in the 100 backstroke.
“She was fantastic in both the relay and individual events,” Nordstrom said.
Looking ahead to CCS, Nordstrom is excited about the potential and pleased with the team’s shift in focus to not being pleased with just competing at that level.
“The kids are just satisfied with qualifying for CCS,” he said. “They want to do well and place.”
