It was senior day for the San Benito swimmers at the Central
Coast Section playoffs, which concluded Saturday at Independence
High.
Seniors Christian Smith and Robbie Shattuck had strong finishes
in their individual events.
SAN JOSE –– It was senior day for the San Benito swimmers at the Central Coast Section playoffs, which concluded Saturday at Independence High.
Seniors Christian Smith and Robbie Shattuck had strong finishes in their individual events.
In the 50 freestyle, Smith had a 22.11 and dropped .08 from his time in the preliminaries Friday. Smith finished fifth overall and is of only a handful of Balers to ever finish that high.
“We were shooting for a time of 21.74 to get All-American consideration,” said coach Leif Nordstrom. “We have been spending a good amount of time working on our starts. In both the preliminaries and finals, he was first off the blocks. That gave him a jump start, and he swam powerful.”
Shattuck swam the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.73 to finish 15th.
“The goal I set for him was a low 1:03, and the goal he set for himself was a 1:02 – which I though was a little ambitious,” Nordstrom said. “After his leg of the medley race, I asked him how he felt. He said that he thought he could do it again. He earned his time with the second 50, where you would expect him to be exhausted.”
Both Smith and Shattuck were disappointed after finishing second behind Live Oak in the league finals. But both swimmers bettered their league opponent in CCS.
In the 500-yard freestyle, Smith finished ahead of Justin Short, who had won the league title. Shattuck was just touched out in the league finals, but the Live Oak swimmer was disqualified. Smith swam a 4:57 in CCS to rank 16th, making the consolation heat.
“I just let him do it how he wanted, because we wanted to concentrate on the 50 freestyle,” Nordstrom said.
David Smith swam a 2:09.4 in the backstroke to finish in 27th place after being ranked in the 40s coming in.
“He made such a significant time drop to get to the 2:10 mark to get to CCS,” Nordstrom said. “I just wanted him to prove to himself that he belonged there. He swam real strong in each of his legs in the relays.”
The 400-yard free relay team just missed making the consolation heat. Even though Joel Smith lost his goggles in the water, the team still finished 17th. The 200-meter freestyle team placed 20th.
For the girls, Denise Simens finished fifth in the preliminaries in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.42.
Stacy Lass made the consolation heat for the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.01. Both Lass and Simens swam in the the 200 IM. Lass finished 29th, and Simens finished 31st.
Juliana Sih finished 28th in the 100-yard freestyle. The medley relay team finished in 16th place, while the 200-yard free finished in 19th place.
