GILROY — Anna Brolin and Natalie Garcia could be mistaken for sisters.
The duo have matching swimsuits, hair color and styles. They complete each other’s sentences and tease one another like siblings. On land, they are best friends, but in the water they’re enemies.
Gilroy’s Brolin and Christopher’s Garcia only raced each other in one event at Friday’s dual meet at CHS, but it didn’t dull the rivalry. The duo and their teammates were just nine seconds apart in the 400-meter freestyle relay with Brolin and the Mustangs finishing first in a time of 4:05.94 and Garcia and the Cougars in second in 4:14.99. But Garcia and her teammates got the last laugh as the Christopher girls beat Gilroy 113-64.
“When we race each other for high school we just want to beat each other. It’s friendly competition,” Brolin said.
But even friendly competition has some trash talking. Brolin and Garcia, who are also teammates on the Morgan Hill Makos, like to tease each other before they race. But if they’re not in the water together, you can guarantee they’ll be cheering each other one — even if that means cheering for the other team.
“We’re very competitive. We’re always like ‘Oh you’re slow,’ even though we know that we’re going to beat each other in certain events,” Garcia said with a laugh. “It’s definitely fun. It’s definitely friendly competition.”
Both Garcia and Brolin have emerged as the elite swimmer on their respective teams — and it shows in their times. Garcia took first and made the Central Coast Section cut in the 200-m free in 2:01.01, 12 seconds faster than Gilroy’s Hannah Comin who finished in second in 2:13.84. She finished 34 seconds ahead of Comin in the 500-m free with a time of 5:23.63 to the Gilroy swimmer’s 5:57.13. Garcia’s 200-m free relay of Ashley Schuster, Malaya Santos and Emma Seery also made the CCS cut and finished 21 seconds ahead of the other Cougar relay team in a time of 1:46.56 to its 2:07.47.
Brolin’s results were just as impressive, finishing the 100-m fly in 58.00 — nine seconds better than her Christopher opponent Kaela Nguyen who finished in 1:07.22. She also finished the 50-m free in a blazing 25.07, which was almost two seconds ahead of the Cougars’ Seery
So why are they so successful? Brolin and Garcia credit each other for that.
“We (practice) together a lot. We always try to keep up with each other,” Garcia said.
“We push each other,” Brolin added.
Christopher’s Santos seems to be learning a thing or two from her relay partner Garcia, ending the meet with two first place finishes of her own in the 200-m individual medley (2:25.33) and the 100-m free in 58.13.
The Mustangs are without a boys team this year, so the Cougar boys easily won 143-0. It was anything but uneventful, however, as the Cougar teammates battled one another for supremacy.
The boys 200-m free saw times all within 100ths of a second of one another with Max Deliz finishing in 2:13.34 for first, Zach Gallardo in second in 2:13.45 and Darrien Yafai in third in 2:13.77.
Matthew Higgenbotham finished first in the 50-m free in 24.06 and 100-m free in 59.19 and was one-fourth of the first place 200-m medley relay and the 200-m free relay. Jordan Jacito also had two first place finishes in the 200-m IM (2:38.22) and 100-m fly (1:08.70) as well as the first place 200-m free relay and 200-m medley relay.
“We had some really good swims from some of our kids that are unknown. It was just a great day, just a great day,” Christopher coach Jeff Ross said. “Everybody won today. That should give them a little kick in the butt and get them going a little bit harder in practice. They can practice harder than they’ve been doing. It was really good to get this win under our belt.”
Despite only a few top finishes at the meet, Gilroy coach Fred Latimore said he was still pleased with the result.
“I think they’re coming and swimming against their crosstown rivals there’s always some emotion and some nerves,” he said. “We’re just happy that they showed up prepared and did what they needed to do in the pool. They all swam and improved their times that’s what’s most important.”
Christopher will host North Salinas at 3:30 p.m. Friday, while Gilroy will swim at Watsonville at the same time.
When we race each other for high school we just want to beat each other. It’s friendly competition.”
