After a Tri-County Athletic season that came almost too easy for the San Benito swim teams, Friday’s meet against Salinas represented the closest and toughest meet of the year.
It was also the first time, since the season-opening meet against Valley Christian, that one of the two team’s didn’t finish in first. Against the Cowboys, the boys swim team — despite two Central Coast Section qualifying times from Quinn Six — fell short, losing 98-87.
“If one or two races change — literally one or two — we win,” head coach Christine Schafer said.
Meanwhile, the girls side continued its league dominance, squeaking by Salinas 106-79.
“It was a really tough meet for us,” Schafer said.
San Benito entered the day looking for a TCAL regular season title and a chance to race against its toughest competition at the TCAL finals on May 4.
“We just want to see where they are at and see what type of swimmers they have,” Six said. “And when we get TCALs we will figure out where we need to put people. They have a lot of fast swimmers.”
Six was the only Baler to earn a CCS qualifying time — grabbing two. Six swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:04.17 and the 200-meter IM in 2:05.04 to get the CCS berths.
The speed in the pool helped the San Benito swimmer, he said.
“It pushes you,” he said. “You want to be the first one. If you’re fast enough you want to get that CCS cut. It’s a good feeling when you take off time. We are out for blood.”
No girl swimmer qualified for the CCS championship, but the team swam well.
Rachel Estep missed her CCS time by half a second in the backstroke, but she swam the first leg of the girls 200-meter medley relay win.
“The goal today was just to make sure we won that event,” she said. “It is definitely to get prepared for TCALs. We are trying to get as many CCS times as we can right now. We are really just trying to rack up as many points as we can. That way, when we get to TCALs we know what events we are swimming and we know which ones we are good at.”
Hayley Larson also swam well for the Balers, earning first place in the 200-meter IM with a time of 2:25.
“That was her first time swimming that,” Schafer said. “She and a lot of kids did really great.”
The Balers will try to earn more CCS qualifying times Thursday against Seaside. The meet starts at 3:30 p.m. at San Benito High.
