Sometimes a split second means everything.
For the San Benito girls swimming team, an early — by a split-second — leap during the 400-yard freestyle relay cost the Balers not only a second place finish in the race but a fourth-straight Tri-County Athletic League swimming title during the TCAL championships Friday at Alvarez High.
During the final race of the day — with San Benito holding onto a slim nine-point lead — the judge said the Balers jumped early, leading to a disqualification — and zero points — to ultimately hand the title to Salinas.
It was a disappointing end to the day for the Balers, who finished second overall to Salinas in both the girls and boys competitions, head coach Christine Schafer said.
“I protested but we lost,” Schafer said. “I still don’t agree with it but that’s why we lost. Without that disqualification, we would have won. They said the last swimmer took off early.”
She continued: “It’s very disappointing. The girls were champions. They swam like champions and they are amazing.”
Overall, San Benito won six individual TCAL championships and recorded 10 Central Coast Section championship times. Even with the day-ending disqualification, San Benito still finished a close second behind Salinas — despite the Cowboys taking home only one first-place finish in diving. Salinas piled up 340 points to the Balers’ 321 to upset the three-time defending champs. The boys, despite two wins from Quinn Six, were overpowered by the Salinas depth and fell 391 to 289.
The last-minute disqualification, which came minutes before the final results were announced, stunned the Balers, who led the standings the entire day.
“That at the end was hard to take, because I didn’t see it that way,” Schafer said.
Losing that chance of a fourth-straight league title, though, wasn’t that hard for San Benito to swallow as the team improved on its season totals.
“We are all trying really hard so I’m definitely excited about today,” said Rachel Estep, who took first and recorded a CCS time in the 100-yard backstroke. “Even if we don’t win overall, today is just a good learning experience and we can take something away from this.”
Estep was one of the big winners for San Benito. After trying throughout the year, Estep finally accomplished her goal of recording a CCS time in the backstroke, finishing in 1:04.18 — less than a half-second faster than Gilroy’s Kim Davis.
“I think I’m in shock because the girl next to me and I were talking before and we really wanted the CCS time. And even if I didn’t get first I wanted to get to go to CCS,” Estep said. “I’ve been working for this. I even got a new suit — a knee suit. I’m so happy I can’t even believe it and I got first on top of that.”
Estep led the race from the beginning, gaining a half-second lead on the first leg of the race. Davis pushed close at the end but Estep — and her new suit — stayed in front.
“I think the suit did help,” she said. “But I also think it also helped the mentality of it — better suit, better time.”
That confidence benefited Estep, along with Caitlin Schafer, Katarina Ortiz and Haley Larson during the team’s 200-yard medley and free relays.
In those relays, which San Benito calls its strength, the Balers didn’t start so well. In the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay, San Benito started strong but faded quickly.
Estep and Schafer gave the Balers an early lead but eventually San Benito fell behind the Gilroy foursome of Davis, Michelle Shields, Anna Brolin and Christina Collett and lost but a half-second.
San Benito responded, though.
Near the end of the meet, in the 200-yard freestyle relay, San Benito started slow but exploded at the end.
Schafer entered the pool last, with a slim lead but blew away Salinas to give San Benito a three-second win.
“We tried to really bounce back from that and come pack with a vengeance,” Estep said. “Caitlin Schafer got that lead and just took it away. That really made it all up for us. I think it was a really good day. It started a little ugly and now it’s really sunny. It’s a good day for us.”
Other impressive times and wins included Alex Vargas, who won the girls 200-yard IM (2:24.67) and finished second in the 500-yard freestyle (5:37.24), and Schafer, who won the 50-yard freestyle (25.60) and finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.26).
For the boys, despite losing by more than 100 points, Six and Alejandro Dones had good days.
Six qualified for CCS and won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.94) and 100-yard fly (55.69). Dones finished second in the 200-yard IM (2:07.75) and recorded a CCS time.
“They were fantastic,” Schafer said. “We asked them to step up and they did. They swam like champions.”
Despite the second-place overall finish, Six was pleased with the Balers’ day.
“They were pretty fast and that’s what scored us all the points,” Six said of his team. “It’s the numbers that got us. It’s all about the numbers.”
With fewer swimmers — compared with Salinas — the Balers scored fewer competitors in the top 12, making he difference, Six said.
“I would like to go put the banner in the high school gym,” he said. “But they had a bigger team than us. They had the numbers.”
At CCS, numbers won’t mean anything — just times.
“Our team is strong going into CCS,” Six said.
The CCS prelims begin at 11 a.m. Friday at the Santa Clara Swim Center.
