Defending champion Balers went undefeated this season, and will
be the team to beat on Friday
A pressure to win, coupled with a boatload of youth, can often
be a bad mix. But nobody has mentioned it to the San Benito swim
team just yet.
Defending champion Balers went undefeated this season, and will be the team to beat on Friday
A pressure to win, coupled with a boatload of youth, can often be a bad mix. But nobody has mentioned it to the San Benito swim team just yet.
The Haybalers — both the boys and girls — are the defending champions of the Tri-County Athletic League and have backed up that title with relative ease so far this season.
They are undefeated — again, both the boys and girls — and enter this Friday’s TCAL Championships with team-to-beat status.
A pressure to win has only been replaced with plenty of confidence.
“When it comes down to tough meets, they step up and do what they have to do,” San Benito head coach Christine Schafer said. “When it’s not a dog race, they’re all too happy to have a good time.
“But (TCALs), that’s our team meet. That’s for the school and they want to do well.”
There hasn’t been a team that has been able to supplant San Benito the last two years — both the boys and girls went undefeated last year, too — but each side has a respective rival coming into Friday’s massive meet at Everett Alvarez High.
With Salinas lurking as always, the San Benito boys will pin their sights on Palma and Gilroy.
“We’re pretty confident,” said San Benito sophomore Quinn Six, who has posted four Central Coast Section qualifying times this year for the Balers. “But Palma and Gilroy have some individual swimmers who will be big.”
Gilroy may have the top swimmer in the league in Eddie Malick, who excels in the stroke events, as well as fellow swimmers Brian Pribyl and Jacob Abruzzini.
But San Benito, which defeated Gilroy by a comfortable 110-61 margin on March 18, will look to break up the Mustangs’ strengths in the stroke events, most notably with Graham Spurzem and Six, each of whom has already qualified to CCS in at least three events.
“They’ve got some tough swimmers,” Six said of Gilroy. “And when we faced Palma, it was a pretty close meet, too.”
The win over Palma on April 23, in fact, was the closest margin of victory for the Balers this season, even if the 102-78 margin of victory wasn’t especially close.
“But now that we beat them,” Six added, “they’ll be coming after us especially at TCALs.”
Last year, while expecting a dog fight with Palma, Gilroy and Salinas, the Baler boys cruised to the TCAL title somewhat comfortably with a 349.5 to 262 victory over Gilroy, while the Lady Balers, who hadn’t come close to losing during the regular season, defeated runner-up Salinas by a much narrower margin, 372-337.
The Lady Balers aren’t expected to battle that much with Salinas on Friday — they beat the Cowboys easily this season 121-54 — but are expecting a fight with Gilroy.
After all, San Benito defeated the Mustangs by a narrow 97-71 margin on March 12.
“We don’t have as much depth as we did last year,” junior Jessie Drogemuller said. “But we’re all working pretty hard and we have a good shot at it.”
With Czsarina Isleta and Demi Gatrell having already qualified to CCS in several events, Drogemuller stands approximately one second short of advancing in the 500 free.
The TCAL Championships will be Drogemuller’s last shot of extending her season, and she’s hoping the added push from the all the talent in attendance will equal, at the very least, one second off her time, as well as push San Benito into as many top-six places as possible.
“The relays will be important,” Drogemuller said. “But the expectations for the meet kind of push us a little bit.
“When it gets intense, we push each other harder.”
The TCAL Championships will take place Friday at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas. Meet time is 2 p.m.
