The last meet of the year, the All-City Finals present an opportunity for participants to be crowned master of their respective disciplines — the speedy front crawl, the powerful breaststroke, the gliding backstroke and the graceful butterfly. In just a few minutes, a team member launches himself or herself into an event horizon: to see an approaching floor of water; to suddenly be enveloped in a cool rush of blue and white; to feel a smooth current passing through the body; to hear, through the splashing, a pandemonium that is the shrieks and shouts and "come-on's" of spectators and teammates.
    A week before, the swimmers faced the possibility of elimination at trials, in which only the six top participants of each event, such as the 200-yard freestyle or the 100-yard backstroke, passed on to the finals. That day went well for Lowell. Most of the varsity swimmers were successful. However, JV faced stiff opposition from Lincoln and Washington. Senior boys’ co-captain Allen Du noted that “the competition was really close.”
    That threat proved true on the day of the finals when the boys’ JV team lost to its counterpart from Lincoln 93-69 (points are determined by ranking in each event — the first-place winner gains six points for the team, the runner-up four points, the third-place winner three points and so on). However, Lowell’s other divisions were victorious — the girls’ varsity swimmers overpowered second-place Washington 122-62, the varsity boys earned 170 points to the Eagles’ meager 49, and the JV girls ditched Washington 104-67 — successfully continuing the Cardinals’ domination over the city’s teams.
    To make an even stronger statement this year, several swimmers broke records. Senior Alden Chan cut through the water quickly enough to notch a new time for the boys’ 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle with times of 22.02 and 48.71 seconds, respectively, and teamed up with seniors Henry Szeto and Christopher Lee and sophomore Stanton Huang to capture the prestigious title of the city’s all-time fastest team for the 400-freestyle relay.
    Boys’ co-captain Szeto was happy with the results. Still, he was displeased with his own performance. “It was not the best ever,” said Szeto, who won first place in all four of his events. “I was not in my best shape; I got better times last year.”

Most Valuable Players
    Picking this year’s two MVPs was particularly difficult. The team consists of many superb members, each one carrying a torch of his or her own, each deserving attention and praise. These athletes work hard, all the while supporting their teammates. Swimmers like senior co-captains Du, Szeto, Stephanie Yeh and Tracy Tang always come to the meets and laugh with their friends and together, as a collective whole, fight toward their goals. They are the team’s leaders and admired for their work. But they are not the only ones. Athletes like senior Alden Chan are, as assistant coach Jonathan Riley put it, “the first in water” at the beginning of every practice. In fact, the whole team is filled with worthy swimmers. Though The Lowell’s picks for Most Valuable Player are Yeh and Chan, each swimmer who put effort and sacrifice into the season is equally valuable.