Swimming crew closes out season by celebrating six gifted seniors – The Saratoga Falcon

Courtesy of Kevin Chen

The seniors of their costumes.

As the solar rose, swimmers stood on the pool deck flipping pancakes for his or her annual senior breakfast, whereas adorning the world with streamers, posters and balloons. They have been on the point of have a good time the crew’s six seniors: Emma Geng, Patrick Keogh, Esad Melikazade, Sophia Tsives, Taewon Yim and Kelsey Zhang. 

Each of the seniors has devoted vital time to the game, and a few will swim past highschool. 

Headlining the group is Zhang, who will swim at UC Berkeley subsequent 12 months and can proceed to pursue the game at nationwide and worldwide ranges sooner or later. She has been representing crew USA internationally two years in a row, and has attended Olympic Trials in June of 2024. She has certified for CCS and states for all 4 years, together with her finest highschool occasions being the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM. 

 Geng, who swims the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breastroke,  plans to affix membership swimming at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the place she will probably be finding out Information Sciences and Data Science.

Keogh, who’s dedicated to UC Berkeley for a double main of Global Studies and Theater and Performing Arts, competes within the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle and mentioned he plans to swim for enjoyable sooner or later throughout his time in school. 

Melikazade, who swims the 100-yard butterfly, has certified for CCS relays all 4 years. He additionally began the game very younger, profitable Far Western finals within the 50-meter freestyle when he was 10 years previous. 

Tsives shouldn’t be solely on the crew for the primary time this season but in addition the one diver on the crew. Coming in with expertise in creative swimming, even being on the Youth National Team,  she plans to make use of her swimming expertise by probably taking part in membership water polo at Vanderbilt University whereas finding out Economics and Chinese. 

Additionally, Yim has set a faculty report for the 200-yard freestyle relay his junior 12 months with class of 25’ athletes Yusuf Tokuz and Brandon Wang and junior Kevin Chen.  His different finest occasions all through the years have been the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle and he has certified for states in sophomore 12 months and CCS for all 4 years.

For Keogh, swimming helped with studying not solely correct swimming strategies but in addition have a resilient aggressive mindset.

“During my time on the team, I’ve taught myself to not give up on something just because I am not immediately good at it,” Keogh mentioned. “It is a lot of mental exercise — telling yourself that you can get to the next milestone and keep going since you’re working out your body for so long.”

Putting in the whole lot they realized all through the season, the crew had its closing twin meet towards Los Gatos High, dropping with an in depth rating of 91-79 for ladies and 87-82 for boys. The crew’s total rating within the De Anza Division continues to be being decided because the crew heads into the submit season.

However, the crew confronted the hardship of getting little sign-ups this season, with solely a varsity crew present for each girls and boys. Coach Christian Bonner thinks that this will have each constructive and destructive results on the crew. 

“We end up running into a situation where we lose meets, not because of the quality of the swimmers, but just because of the number of swimmers,” Bonner mentioned. “But the swimmers still get to know each other better, which would be less likely with a much larger team.”

With the shut bonds developed over the seasons, the seniors lined up on the diving blocks earlier than the meet because the underclassmen delivered a speech to every one, recognizing their laborious work and reminiscing on reminiscences from through the years. Geng discovered the speeches to be sentimental as she regarded again on her swimming journey.

“For the past three years I’ve been giving speeches to the seniors and it was finally my turn to be the senior,” Geng mentioned. “It was definitely a bittersweet moment.”

While the seniors listened to the speeches, they have been wearing Spongebob costumes; this dress-up side of senior evening is custom for the crew. 

After the meet, the seniors competed in a boys versus ladies relay the place every particular person needed to swim 50 yards of their costumes with a stroke of their alternative. The boys ended up because the winners, closing off the festivities for the evening.

As the twin meet season closes off, the upcoming SCVAL League trials and finals will decide what different meets the athletes have in retailer. Yim believes the laborious work and dedication of the crew to be one of the crucial essential elements of the season.

“I think this team is doing well right now,” Yim mentioned. “Regardless of the points, everyone is working hard to better themselves and their teammates, which I believe is more important.”