After a five-year drought, the boys swim team was able to take the title of San Gabriel Valley League Champions on April 25 after they defeated the Warren Bears at the Downey Aquatic Center at 3:00 pm.
The team began the season with high goals and expectations for league. The boys had a total of nine pre-season meets which where broken into two meets per week.
“I have been swimming since I was about seven,” Tade Marquez, 9, said, “and from experience I can say that it’s hard to recover after a competition. I was surprised when I was told we had two meets per week.”
Each meet was an opportunity for the younger athletes to gain experience for the league meets, both mentally and physically.
“During the beginning of the season we where averaging about 4,000 yards per practice, which is about 120 laps of sprints and distance,” Omar Martinez, 10, said, “but when Coach Delhousay told me I was going to be doing the 500 free in meets, I was scared because it was a race of 20 laps. I was relieved that I had pre-season meets to practice my pacing.”
During pre-season the Vikings where challenged since in the majority of meets they were against faster opponents who, in many cases were more experienced due to their background as club swimmers; however, that was not enough for the Vikings to be put down, as they too had their own secret weapons. Seniors Peter Roldan, James Morrison, and David Lumbreras, sophomores Ryan Cruz and Michael Kim and Freshman Tadeo Marquez helped the team by specializing in their particular stroke and distance.
“Tadeo was a lot of help,” Roldan said, “After Danny, our only butterflyer, hurt his arm during polo season. We thought we would be lacking a butterflyer for our medley relay. You can say that it was a surprise to all of us upperclassmen that a freshman was going under a minute in the 100 fly.”
The only team standing in the way of Downey and the league title was Paramount High School, which for five years straight had taken the title and had gloated consistently of their “5peat” as they called it. After taking a dominant lead against the Pirates on April 11, it was an unofficial victory and sure title for the boys swim team.
“Of course there was still the Downey vs. Warren meet but we were confident that it was going to be a victory for us,” Cruz said.
For three months the boys were dedicated and had only one goal in mind –a league title. After a shared title last year with the Pirates it was time for the boys swim team to stand alone as the only champions. After all, their profession is to swim.
