As the season draws to a close, the boys on the Palo Alto High School swim team look to shave their times and solidify their form. The team suffered a defeat to Henry M. Gunn High School on April 12, following a string of recent victories. Junior Alex Beaudry credits the loss to confusion among the team.
“The 200 [freestyle] relay was a botched job,” Beaudry said. “There was enough confusion and incompetence to completely ruin that race for us. It’s not that we didn’t swim well, there was just no communication among the team members, which is really why we lost.”
The team was also unable to step up and match Gunn in speed. However, despite the loss, Beaudry remains positive about the abilities of the Paly team.
“All in all, Gunn is a pretty good team,” Beaudry said. “The fact that we were able to keep it close against them even with some of our mistakes shows promise for the team. Even though we lost the meet, we all know that we’re still a good team and that if we keep our heads up and focus that we can succeed.”
The Paly boys’ next meet was against Los Gatos High School, and this time they came away with a win. Junior Alex Liang is hopeful that the success will carry over into postseason.
“I think the meet went well, and I hope it means that we are in good shape to contend for the league title,” Liang said. “We did well against Los Gatos mainly because we all raced hard and were able to put up a lot of points.”
The team is now preparing for postseason, and are hoping to reclaim their Santa Clara Valley Athletic League title that they lost during the 2015 season.
“We’re preparing by working hard the last few days of the regular season and then resting in order to be ready for leagues,” Liang said. “I think that as long as we keep doing what we’ve been doing for most of the season that we will do well.”
Despite a few setbacks this season, Liang looked back on the season with positivity.
“The season as a whole was pretty good and I think we did well,” Liang said. “We had an unfortunate loss to Gunn, but we will definitely be able to get revenge at leagues, CCS and states.”
