SANTA CLARA – GHS swimmers post season-best times at CCS
Championships.
SANTA CLARA – After senior Eddie Malick finished his 200-yard individual medley preliminary swim during Day 1 of the Central Coast Section Championships on Friday, he stood with Gilroy High swim coach Tom Clark, crunching numbers and times, waiting to see if his 2:00.44 would qualify him through to Saturday’s finals.
As the last heat concluded, Malick pumped his fists in the air, realizing that he would swim that race in the consolation finals.
Malick’s reaction was a microcosm of the day the 10 GHS swimmers had at Friday’s prelims, clocking season-best times throughout the competition.
The day began with the boys’ 200 medley relay team of Jacob Abruzzini, Michael Shields, Zach Kendrick and Malick (1:40.81) narrowly missing a spot in Saturday’s A-Final heat, qualifying as the top team in the consolation heat.
“That went really well,” Malick said after the 200 medley relay. “Everyone was really fast. That’s a school record.”
The boys returned to the pool Saturday as the top-seed in the B-Final and held up their position, posting a 1:40.86 to finish first in the race.
Malick, also swam in the 200 IM consolation heat and 100 breaststroke final on Saturday, placing 14th and fifth, respectively.
Perhaps the highlight for the team over the two days of competition was Friday’s preliminaries of the boys and girls 200 freestyle relay.
With both events running simultaneously, Clark watched his girls (Christina Raby, Christina Collett, Isabella Comin and Michelle Shields) shave more than one second off their CCS qualifying time with a 1:46.67 – a season-best time. He then jaunted over to the boys’ end of the pool only to see his squad of Abruzzini, Michael Shields, Kendrick and Brian Pribyl, hit a season-best 1:33.24.
“That was a really good surprise for me,” Clark said. “That’s what it’s all about. Come in here and do the best you can.”
Though neither 200 free relay qualified to the finals, the satisfaction of hitting their goals and taking time off their marks was more than enough.
“Nothing like competition to get you going,” Comin said.
Abruzzini echoed Comin’s sentiments and said that friendships and team chemistry were major keys to the boys’ relay success this season despite having just five members on the roster.
“We are pretty pumped,” he said. “We switched up the positions and it worked out in the end.”
Friday turned into even more of a party in the final event of the four-plus hours of swimming, as the girls 400 free relay team (Brittney Malick, Collett, Comin and Michelle Shields) smashed their CCS qualifying time by three seconds to take third in the heat.
And to top it off:
“We beat San Benito,” Comin exclaimed as the girls gave each other well deserved high fives.
Michelle Shields (50 and 100 free) and Collett (500 free) each swam in individual events for the girls, but both missed the cut in their events.
“You get here and everyone is as fast or is faster,” Clark said. “It can be overwhelming for some of these kids.”
The boys capped the Friday’s competition with one last personal-best performance in the 400 free relay. The group of Abruzzini, Pribyl, Malick and Michael Shields, clipped nearly five seconds off of its qualifying time with 3:22.46.
“We have the smallest team,” Clark stressed about the five boys, “but we have some of the best talent.”
Even with the small numbers, the boys finished 21st out of 42 teams that registered points. Bellarmine topped everyone to take the team title. Archbishop Mitty won the girls championship.
