All season long, out by the pool, Aragon’s swim team was working hard, warming up, and conditioning in preparation of their meets. This season, the Dons were able to end their season with a win against crosstown rivals Hillsdale Knights on April 28, bringing the boys team to 4-3 and girls to 1-6 in the Bay division.
During the meet, senior David Wong recorded a new personal record of 22.72 seconds for the men’s 50m freestyle, qualifying him for CCS. Tori Fong also swam a new PR in the 100m backstroke at a time of 1:14.
Just minutes before their 200m freestyle relay, the boys made some quick adjustments, placing senior Nick Tong in the first leg in an effort to gain an initial lead prior to senior David Chen, junior Justin Sell, and Wong’s legs, altogether amounted to an overall time of 2:05.
Reflecting on the season, the team generally agrees that they met expectations, saying, “If I’m being honest, I just expected to go to practice every day and give every workout my best effort,” says Wong. “But it was nice having my efforts validated by making CCS.”
Junior Sophia Rogers had similar expectations going into this season, saying, “I was just focused on coming to practice and trying, I didn’t really know what to expect.”
Training for this season involved a lot of endurance training, which proved effective in helping the players achieve new PRs.
Coach Bill Barthold mostly focused on conditioning and strength work with some incorporation of strokework to prepare them for the exhaustion they will experience during their races. “This season I just wanted everyone to be able to improve their times,” says Barthold. “And I’m just proud that the team put in the work they were supposed to during practice, and we have people who qualified for CCS.”
“I improved a lot more than I expected to, especially when I shaved a couple seconds off my freestyle time,” says Rogers. “I was also able to improve my flip turn, because I kept turning too early during my events, which ended up slowing me down more than I realized.”
For others, the adjustment was more mental than physical. “I had trouble getting into the right mindset before my races,” says Wong. “It was difficult to focus on what I wanted to accomplish.”
Tong says, “It was difficult to relax and think in the moment, especially since Hillsdale was our last meet.”
Despite their initial uncertainty regarding this season’s results, they were certain that they would be facing competition by staying in the Bay division. There was a general understanding that the Carlmont Scots, Menlo-Atherton Bears, and Sequoia Cherokees would be difficult to compete against because of the intensity and times they bring to PAL.
In particular, the seniors especially noted the memorable senior meet the conclusion of the season. “All the seniors got a poster, and the team even got us a cake,” says Wong. “It was super cool of [the team] to do all that for us.”
After the Dons placed sixth at PAL championships, CCS will continue on Friday, May 13.
This article was submitted on Thursday, May 12, prior to the CCS tournament.
