Although no members of the San Benito High swim team advanced to
Saturday’s ‘A’ Final at the Central Coast Section Swimming and
Diving Championships in Santa Clara, a ‘B’ Final was reached, as
was a new school-record swim. While Quinn Six recorded the fastest
time on the San Benito record books in the 100-yard backstroke
event, the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of Katarina Ortiz,
Caitlin Schafer, Haley Larson and Czsarina Isleta, after clocking a
16th-place finish of 1:45.18 during Friday’s preliminary round,
recorded a 15th-place time of 1:44:87 in Saturday’s ‘B’ Final.
SANTA CLARA
Although no members of the San Benito High swim team advanced to Saturday’s ‘A’ Final at the Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships in Santa Clara, a ‘B’ Final was reached, as was a new school-record swim.
While Quinn Six recorded the fastest time on the San Benito record books in the 100-yard backstroke event, the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of Katarina Ortiz, Haley Larson, Caitlin Schafer and Czsarina Isleta, after clocking a 16th-place finish of 1:45.18 during Friday’s preliminary round, recorded a 15th-place time of 1:44:87 in Saturday’s ‘B’ Final.
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It was the first time since 2009 that San Benito has qualified anyone to the second day of the CCS Championships, and the first time since 2008 that it’s qualified a relay team.
The 2008 team that qualified to Day 2 was also the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay, although it was made up of Demi Gatrell, Megan Geary, Katie Buzzetta and Shelli Reed, each of whom have since graduated.
On Saturday, a new batch of Balers tried their hand in the 200 free relay, including a pair of freshmen and a pair of sophomores. While Schafer swam the third leg in a speedy time of 25.79 seconds, the anchor Isleta covered the final 50 yards in 25.33 seconds. The first and second legs of Ortiz and Larson recorded times of 27.15 and 26.60 seconds, respectively.
“It was big,” San Benito head coach Christine Schafer said of the team’s qualification toward the second day. “I think they were the youngest relay team there, so it was a pretty big accomplishment.”
The 1:44.87 set on Saturday was not only an improvement over the performance from the day before, but also an improvement over the team’s initial seed time of 1:46.84 — an improvement of about two seconds, in fact.
Meanwhile, the time of 1:45.18 recorded during Friday’s prelims wasn’t without its fair share of drama. Only those teams who finished between ninth and 16th place on Friday advanced to Saturday’s ‘B’ Final, and San Benito’s 16th-place finish of 1:45.18 bested 17th-place Pioneer (1:45.38) by all of two-tenths of a second.
Saturday’s performance by the girls’ 200 free relay team wasn’t the only storyline last weekend, though. On Friday, Quinn Six fell short of earning a top-16 spot in the 100-yard backstroke event, but clocked a school-record time of 55.71 seconds, nonetheless.
“That made him really happy,” Schafer said. “He was totally stoked.”
The record-breaking performance placed him 22nd overall – just 1.49 seconds off of qualifying for a top-16 spot – and was roughly four-tenths of a second faster than his seed time (56.10) entering prelims.
The 100-yard backstroke record is something Six has been chasing ever since last season, when, as a sophomore, he and then-freshman Graham Spurzem were locked in a friendly battle to see who could break the record first.
And it was Spurzem, who has since transferred from San Benito High, who recorded a then-record of 55.85 in the 100 back during last season’s CCS preliminaries, shattering the previous record of 56.22 set by David Smith in 2006.
Six had technically broken the school record last year as well, recording a 56.16 during preliminaries, but was short of Spurzem’s time by about three-tenths of a second.
He was short, that is, until Friday at the Santa Clara International Swim Center, where he trumped Spurzem’s best effort by 14 one-hundredths of a second.
Six also competed in the 50-yard freestyle on Friday, and finished 28th with a time of 22.54 seconds, an improvement over his initial seed time of 22.77 seconds.
The girls’ 200-yard medley relay team nearly advanced past the preliminary round as well. Made up of Rachel Estep, Isleta, Celina Stotler and Schafer, the Baler foursome figured into the top 16 during Friday’s prelims, but were later disqualified for a false start.
Interestingly enough, the girls’ 200-yard medley relay team from Gilroy instead took San Benito’s spot during Friday’s ‘B’ Final.
Czsarina Isleta, who qualified to CCS in every event but the 200 free, narrowly missed a trip to finals in the 100-yard breaststroke event, too. She finished 23rd overall on Friday with a 1:10.59. She also clocked a 2:19.63 in the 200 IM, placing 42nd overall.
The girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay of Larson, Stotler, Jessie Drogemuller and Briana Huntley finished 34th overall in 4:02.48, while the senior Drogemuller also swam in the 500-yard freestyle event as well.
Like last year, the soon-to-be graduate of San Benito High advanced to CCS by posting a qualifying time in the final meet of the regular season – the Tri-County Athletic League Finals.
On Friday, she recorded a 5:41.63 to finish in 36th overall.
To see complete results from the Central Coast Section Swimming and Diving Championships, go here.
