In the first swim meet of the 2012 season, the girls medley relay continued its success from last year, as Caitlin Schafer, Rachel Estep, Haley Larson and Katarina Ortiz qualified for the Central Coast Section year-end meet.
But this year won’t continue to come so easy, head coach Christine Schafer said.
Two years removed a from perfect season in the Tri-County Athletic League, the boys and girls swimming and diving squads have much up in the air. Both teams still have elite swimmers – the boys Quinn Six and the girls four relay swimmers – but the rest is still to be determined.
“We have a really good top group of swimmers,” coach Schafer said. “It’s a little sliver at the top but we have a middle full of swimmers that are so close.”
So both teams will have tremendous depth, but not many elite swimmers.
“We have to see what they can do,” Schafer said of the depth. “We don’t know who is going to be on varsity or on J.V.”
In essence, beyond the top swimmers, the team’s status will remain in flux.
“We want to get the best swimmers on both varsity and J.V.,” she said.
But the team knows it will rely on senior Quinn Six, who has qualified for the CCS championship each year he has jumped in the San Benito pool.
“Quinn is going be in a lot of events for us this year,” Schafer said. “He can do a lot of great things for us. He’s had the most success on our team so far.”
But Six won’t be the only swimmer the boys team will rely on, Schafer said.
The coach expects Alejandro Dones, Adrian Martinez and freshmen Gus Spurzem to all contribute during the year, Schafer said.
“We are a pretty young team, but we are a deep team that will continue to get better,” she said.
On the girls side, Schafer will rely on her relay team and a group of freshman, she said. Freshmen Michelle Berundo, Heather Smith and Alex Verga are expected to remain a large part of the team’s success as it tries to capture a third-straight TCAL title.
“They are young but they are really talented,” she said. “This is the deepest girls team we’ve had in a long time.”
She continued, “I told the parents at a meeting that kids will be going from JV and varsity all year. They are so good they can be on both. We are going to get the best two teams. Both of them will be capable of winning.”
This year, because of an abbreviated schedule, things will be even harder for the girls and boys teams to do well, Schafer said. The Balers host only five events throughout the year, and the postseason starts two weeks earlier.
“It’s going to be a fast season,” she said. “Everything is going to go by really quick.”
Because of that, the team needs to get off to a fast start. Against Valley Christian on Monday, the Balers lost by a wide margin. The loss, though, was expected and needed, Schafer said.
“It kick starts the season for us,” Schafer said. “It’s good to go through that. It will make us better.”
The meet sends them into a TCAL opening match with Palma and Notre Dame on March 9.
“The boys are going to have a tough one with Palma,” Schafer said. “It’s one of the most important meets of the year. We always like to start tough and end tough. I really like our schedule this year.”
