The TO swim team was down six points with one event left in the CIF championships, and the pressure was on.
With one relay race to go, the goal was simple: All they had to do was not get disqualified.
“If we got ninth place in the championship final we still would’ve beaten them, but our kids did not care and swam their best race of the season,” assistant coach Austin Gregory told the Lancer. “They got first place by 10 seconds in that final event.”
This push in the final race of the season propelled the Lancers all the way from the six-point deficit into a 38-point lead, clinching TO’s first CIF section championship.
While Gregory and head coach Craig Rond were on the edges of their seats, the boys swim program, composed primarily of water polo players, was able to make school history.
“That’s just the new culture in aquatics for us,” Gregory said of embracing multi-sport athletes. “Last year, there were about four or five water polo players on the boys side that did swim team as well, whereas this year, every single water polo player for the boys side, except two, did swim team.”
The team atmosphere not only carried the program to the CIF Finals, but to the championship itself.
”It was really satisfying,” said Keith Warner, who also serves as a water polo team captain. “I was in two different relays, and they are the biggest point scorers — for the relay, you get double points — so I was really happy to be a part of the 200 medley and contribute. But it really adds to a team (when) everyone swims harder when they are individual events because everyone is relying on you.”
The buy-in towards the aquatics program has this year’s CIF title looking as just the start.
“Coach Rond’s message this year is that you can do hard things, and (we) showed the kids that it’s possible to do club water polo and swim all in one day and still do homework at the end,” Gregory said.
For the TO coaches, watching the Lancers celebrate was a reward in itself.
“The way the pool was set up, the athletes were below coach and I, and we were on top and just everybody celebrating,” Gregory said. “I wish you could see that moment that en-captures just how excited we were that we had won.”
And for the Lancer swimmers themselves, it is a memory they’ll never forget.
“(It was) pretty sick honestly, just hearing that TO won on the loudspeakers and getting our place and all it’s pretty unreal, honestly,” senior Thomas McDonough said. “But (we were) blessed to be able to experience it.”