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By Ashley Wu
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Apr. 27, 2009 |
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Sophomore swimmer Henry Quach steps onto the diving block for the boys’ 50-meter freestyle. The cheering from his fellow swimmers is already fading from his mind. As he dives into the water, he has cleared his head of every thought so he can concentrate on his goal — to beat his biggest opponent: himself.
“When I'm swimming, I don't think of anything,” Quach said. “I just focus on myself and beating my past time.”
After clearing his head and focusing, Quach was able to place first in the boys’ 50-meter freestyle at a meet against Galileo on April 2.
Many of the Lowell swimmers have similar goals: either to beat their old times or to beat someone else on the team. This friendly competition among team members keeps swimmers motivated to swim even faster.
“I’m going to beat Nicholas Kwan in the next meet,” Quach said two nights before the Lowell, Lincoln and Washington meet on April 17. Quach was sure of himself when he said that his goal was to beat junior swimmer Nicholas Kwan.
Unfortunately for Quach, he wasn’t able to accomplish this goal at Sava Pool on April 11. “At the Wash-Lowell-Lincoln meet, I whipped Henry like cream,” Kwan said.
The team competed against Lincoln at Sava Pool on March 27. After facing no challenges from the other AAA league teams, Lincoln was a threat to the Cardinals. “Our biggest competition is Lincoln because their team is pretty strong, especially their girls’ varsity,” junior swimmer Cerise Tang said. The varsity girls lost to Lincoln in the girls’ 200-medley relay, but the boys avenged the team by blowing the Mustangs out of the water in the boys’ 200-medley relay immediately after.
At the same meet, P.E. teachers Brian Okita and Michael Prutz went to Sava Pool to support the team. “We have some students on the team and so we go to show our support,” Prutz said.
The team appreciates the support from the faculty. “The teachers who go to our meets really encourage us and make us feel more important and recognized since they come to cheer and support us,” freshman swimmer Amanda Chun said. “Just having them there and spending their time to watch shows that they care.”
Apart from the meet against Lincoln, however, there hasn’t been a lot of support from the teachers. “We actually don't get much teacher support apart from Mr. Yang, who is on top of all of the paperwork and other things,” Kwan said. “His office has now unofficially become a swim hangout. He helps order the team merchandise and is the sole protector of the all-important Lowell swim caps.”
The swim season is coming to a close and championships are coming up. “We are definitely ready for the championships,” junior swimmer Anthony Li said. “We all trained very hard and are very anxious to see the results of our swim.” A few of the swimmers attribute their readiness to the intense practices over spring break. “We’ve worked really hard over spring break to get prepared,” freshman swimmer Aisia Azus said.
However, Tang and junior swimmer Celia Liang both agree that they still have some things to work on. “I felt pretty ready during spring break when we had double practice, but I still have many things I need to improve in, such as flip turns,” Tang said. Liang continued to say that she wouldn’t feel ready until at least the week of the championships.
Before championships, sophomore swimmer Chioke Bautista wants to give his team a message. “Everybody do your best, swim hard and take it seriously,” he said.
Come to the swim championship trials at St. Ignatius on April 25 to support the team in their completion of total domination over the waters.
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