GILROY—History was made last Friday as the Christopher High swimming team beat San Benito for the first time in its six-year existence as a program.
The Christopher girls swam away with a 104-76 win. The boys had a much closer call but prevailed 92-87. Cougar coach Jeff Ross said one could not underestimate the importance of this dual meet victory.
“Outside of the league championships, this meet was the focal point of the whole season,” Ross said. “We had to beat them.”
The Monterey Bay League championship is determined by two factors: the regular season and the league championships. Christopher receives two points for every team it beats during the regular season, and three points for finishing ahead of every team during the league meet.
Those points are then combined to determine the overall champion.
“It will probably come down to us and Hollister in the league meet,” Ross said. “Now they’ll have to beat us in the championships.”
The Christopher girls were flat-out dominant, setting the tone in the meet’s first event, the 200-meter medley relay. The Haybalers had the lead after the first two legs of the race, only to see the Cougars’ Maccy Solomon produce a blistering third leg—the butterfly—to give Christopher an advantage it would never relinquish.
The Cougars finished in a time of 2 minutes, 2.45 seconds to the Balers’ 2:06.77. Solomon also won two individual events, the 200m individual medley and the 100m butterfly in times of 2:29.12 and 1:05.32, respectively.
Other double individual winners included freshman sensation Maria Higginbothom, who captured the 50m freestyle in 25.86 and the 100m free in 55.90, and Malaya Santos, who won the 200m free in 2:06.34 before posting an impressive 500m free time in 5:47.76. She was nearly seven seconds faster than the boys’ winner, the Cougars’ Darren Yafai, who won his race in 5:54.59.
Although the boys’ meet was much closer, the Cougars had basically wrapped up things before the final event—the 400m free relay. Christopher simply had to show up—points are awarded on a place basis, meaning a team receives six points for first, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one point for fifth.
Jacob Holm was stellar for Christopher, winning two individual events along with being a part of the team’s victorious 200m medley and 200m free relay teams. Holm won the 200m IM in 2:08.09, nearly 17 seconds ahead of the second place finisher.
Holm also captured the 100m butterfly in 55.97. Other individual event winners from Christopher included Zach Gallardo in the 200m free (2:01.43), Jordan Jucinto in the 50m free (24.56), Max Deliz in the 100m free (54.75), and the aforementioned Yafai, who took the lead on the 16th lap—out of 20—to win the 500m free.
Ross said he couldn’t have been happier with the team’s performance, as it displayed tremendous balance throughout the lineup. For example, in the 400m free relay—the last event of the day—Ross inserted freshman Brianna Burell-Lewis as the first leg for a very practical reason.
“We ran out of kids (because of the Sadie Hawkins dance),” Ross said. “Brianna came in like a pinch hitter and hit a home run. It was a great way for the girls to end their meet. This result was better than I expected. In the last three weeks, I’ve been pooping bricks wondering how we’d do. I couldn’t be happier.”
