The Gilroy Gators Swim Team finishes in third place in the last
competition of the season held in Morgan Hill
Gilroy – After last year’s sixth-place finish, Tom Clark just hoped his team would come in fifth. Fourth would have been an added bonus.
But to his surprise the Gilroy Gators Swim Team placed third in the Coast Valley Aquatic League’s Short Course Championships held from August 4-6 in Morgan Hill.
“I’m just really proud of them,” said Clark, the Gilroy Gators’ head coach. “The kids really swam for the club. I was really proud of them all. They swam well as individuals and they swam well as a team.”
The team showed up with 110 swimmers, exactly twice the amount of the San Benito team but about 70 less than the Monterey team. Out of Gilroy’s swimmers 34 placed in the top 16 of their respective competition’s.
Clark said the 6 and under and 8 and under age groups were the biggest surprise of the day. He said those kids usually disqualify themselves with an illegal stroke but instead they held it together and came through for the team.
“That was a surprise for me,” Clark said of the third place finish. “We lost a lot of kids … so we’re in the rebuilding years.”
As for next season the coach is hoping for another third place finish.
“It’s hard, you lose kids and you gain kids,” he said.
