As a junior, Anna Brolin knows how to leave a mark. The Gilroy swimmer placed twice during Saturday’s Central Coast Section championship meet to help lift the Mustangs to a 19th place finish on the girls side.
Brolin broke her season best times in the 100-yard fly and 100-yard breaststroke during the section meet. In the 100-yard fly, Brolin finished comfortably in seventh place (56.22) less than half a second behind sixth-place finisher Michi Aisawa of Wilcox. Later in the day during the 100 yard breaststroke, Brolin improved her best time and took sixth at 1:06:00.
Brolin was one of many local swimmers that left a splash at the CCS finals last weekend. Behind nine swimmers, Sobrato ended the meet with two top finishers in three events to tie Gilroy at 19th place. San Benito and Christopher were the only local school to not advance a swimmer to Saturday’s final round.
And on the boys side, Live Oak was led by Daniel Pawlak, who placed in both of his competitions during the day.
The senior ended his career at Live Oak on a high note, taking sixth place in the 100-yard fly (51.63) and 11th in the 50-yard freestyle (21.74).
“It was a nice culmination to his career at Live Oak,” LOHS head coach Mach Haines said. “If you can make it to seven (place) as an individual in the CCS swim meet, you’re an accomplished swimmer. Obviously having two of them is what carried our relays and our team at that level.”
Ryan McCombs also swam well for the Acorns, taking 16th place in the 50-yard free (22.05).
“It was incredible,” Haines said. “Live Oak has had a tradition of aquatic excellence over the years and things are kind of in a little bit of a dip, and I’m hoping this is year is a start of good things to come. Again, I’m just really proud of the team.”
With two strong swimmers, Live Oak also took 12th in the 200 medley relay (1:39.42) and 13th in the 200 free relay (1:29.36).
For Sobrato, Christiana Bridges and Lauren Akin helped lead the Bulldogs to a strong season finish. Bridges took sixth place in the 500-yard freestyle (5:05.11) by improving her time by more than 10 seconds. Earlier in the day, Bridges took 16th in the 200-yard freestyle (1:57.95). Meanwhile, Akin also swam well during the 500-yard freestyle, taking 19th place with a time of 5:10.08.
The Bulldogs also earned points in the 200 medley relay, taking 16th place with a time of 1:54.74.
Despite seven individual swimmers and divers, including three relay teams, the San Benito swim team struggled to place during the CCS meet. The team battled fatigue stemming from the league championship meet. The Baler times were slower than usual, SBHS head coach Christine Schafer said.
“The team swam good but given the fact that they had been at a meet that ended at 9:30 at night the Friday before, they were still tired and their times reflected that,” Schafer said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of improvement. It wasn’t great. It was okay.”
The biggest bright spot for the Balers belonged to its diving team. Senior Jordan Dain and freshman Dakota Nix both placed for the Balers. Dain received a score of 297.65 to take 14th place. Nix scored 275.6 to take 16th place.
“I’m super proud of Jordan Dain,” Schafer said. “That was an awesome accomplishment for him.”
No Baler swimmer advanced to the second day after failing to earn a top-16 finish during the qualifying round on Friday. Only Haley Larson in the 200-yard I.M. improved her time (2:19.76).
Regardless, it was a good season for the Balers, who clinched a league title in the last years for Caitlin Schafer and Rachel Estep.
“Our goal was to win league,” Christine Schafer said. “The girls wanted to win league and they won league. That was their entire goal. There were a lot of best times posed at league because they were so motivated to have a good showing there. They wanted the last thing in their senior year to be a league championship. And they did. So that was awesome.”
No Christopher swimmer advanced to the second day, but the Cougars received points from diver Nathan Myers. Scoring 356 points, Myers took ninth for Christopher.
