The College of Marin Swim Team spent three days competing at the Central Valley Conference Championships at Merced College from April 20-22nd. Their dedication was rewarded heavily as Sophomore Hope Garret nabbed four wins and put herself in excellent position to qualify for the state finals at East LA College.
Garrett took part in the 50 yard butterfly and won the preliminaries with a time of 28.10 seconds. She bettered her time in the finals, finishing in 27.68 seconds, almost seven tenths of a second faster than the second place finisher. She faired even better in the 100 yard butterfly as she finished first in the prelims in 1:01.71. The finals were not close as Garrett blew away the field in 1:01.04, while the second place finisher was almost three seconds slower.
Results remained roughly the same for Garrett in the 100 yard backstroke. She won the prelims in 1:04.96 before destroying the field yet again in the finals with a time of 1:01.75. She edged second place by a healthy margin of nearly two seconds. Hope's finest showing may have been in the 200 yard butterfly where she won the finals in 2.17.51, more than ten seconds faster than the second place finisher who had a time of 2:28.28.
Garrett's teammates also had impressive competitions as Annika Mellen had four top five finishes. She took second place in the 200 yard backstroke in a time of 2:23.47, third in the 100 yard backstroke in 1:06.48, third in the 50 yard backstroke in 30.26 seconds and fourth place in the 100 yard butterfly in 1:06.41.
Skylar Merwin took sixth in the 50 yard backstroke, sixth in the 100 yard backstroke, sixth in the 200 yard backstroke and seventh place in the 50 yard freestyle.
The women's relay team of Garrett, Mellen, Merwin and Joanna Poliseri did quite well as the quartet took third place in the 200 and 400 yard medley relays as well as third place in the 400 meter freestyle relay and fifth place in the 200 yard freestyle relay.
On the men's side, Scott Swanson placed sixth in the 500 yard freestyle race. He took seventh in the 200 yard freestyle competition and eighth place in the 100 yard individual medley. Alex Sennehenn placed seventh in the 100 yard backstroke and eighth in the 200 yard freestyle.
As a whole the Men's team placed sixth with 224 points, and the women's team took seventh with 606 points.
Hope Garrett was named the Women's Swimmer of the year for her four individual triumphs. She is the fifth COM swimming MVP over the last eight years and has a very good chance to make the state finals this season. Last year "Hope missed qualifying for the state meet last year by just tenths of a second. It is a testimony to her perseverance to meet this disappointment with a season of hard work to insure that she would not fall a bit short again," said Head Coach Warren Lager on her accomplishments this season.
The State Meet is May 4th-6th at East LA College.