Hollister High head girls swim coach Derek Kisling sweated out a
first place in the 200-medley relay at Saturday’s Tri-County
Athletic League swim meet at Live Oak High.
MORGAN HILL – Hollister High head girls swim coach Derek Kisling sweated out a first place in the 200-medley relay at Saturday’s Tri-County Athletic League swim meet at Live Oak High.
“That was the one I was nervous about,” said Kisling at the time.
Well, unfortunately for the Baler girls, who entered the T-CAL’s undefeated in dual meet competition, there was much more to be nervous about. The Baler girls, who fell behind in Wednesday’s diving competition to the host Acorns 33-3, could never recover and had to settle for second place in the final team race.
Live Oak rolled up to 343 points to Hollister’s 287. Salinas, which was in second much of the meet, ended up in third with 256.
“Our strength were in the freestyles, while Hollister’s was in the breast and backstrokes,” said Acorns coach Courtney Hernandez. “We built a big lead up and held on.”
The Balers were not without their highlights. Britta Nordstrom set a school record in the 200-freestyle, breezing to a 1:58.92. The next closest finisher was Gilroy’s Kim Spaulding, who swam a 2:06.65. Nordstrom doubled individually by winning the 50-free with a time of 25.23. The 50-free time is just short of Carlie Guerra’s school record of 25.07, set at the section meet when she was senior.
Nordstrom, who will swim the 50 and 100-free at CCS, hopes to improve even further at CCS.
“I’ll try to get in the top 8,” said Nordstrom.
Stacey Lass added two first places for the Balers, winning the 500-free at 5:25.67 and the 100-back in 1:02.75. Both are CCS-qualifying times. Lass dwarfed the field in the 500-free, beating the nearest competitor by 15 seconds.
“I dropped four seconds off my 500 time,” said Lass. “I was surprised I won by that much.”
Another Baler first came from sophomore Juliana Sih, who won the 100-yard free in 55.48.
The Balers took two of three relays – winning the 200MR in 1:59.10 and the 400-free in 3:49.56. The 200MR team consists of Lass, Sigh, Amanda Rodriguez and Kathryn Adamek. The 400-free relay is comprised of Lass, Erin Reed, Sih and Nordstrom.
The Balers’ 200-free team – Adamek, Brandy Russell, Reed and Nordstrom – clocked 1:47.18 for second.
Reed was second in the 100-fly with a 1:03.34 as she was nipped at the wire by Live Oak’s Susan Suchomel (1:03.17). Sih was second in the 100-yard breast at 1:10.86, barely losing out to Meghan Harrison of Salinas (1:10.73).
All qualified girls advance to the CCS swim competition, which is Friday and Saturday at the Santa Clara Swim Center.
