Swim & Dive vs. Bonita

On March 1st, San Dimas Swim and Dive team had their first meet for the 2022-2023 school year against Bonita. In this meet, all levels competed for the Mermaid Cup in their annual rivalry. There are a total of forty one events in each meet, which start off with the 200 medley relay with four people. Each person does a different stroke for this relay, which consists of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle, then ends off the meet with the 400 freestyle relay, each person does one hundred freestyle. 

Every year the Bonita meet is united with friendships and old teammates that players had with over the years, it’s a competition among their peers that helps both teams prepare for their league races. Sophomore, Emily Robertson says, “I love Bonita’s meet because I used to swim with La Verne and that was my first swim team that I swam with, so I know a lot of people who compete for Bonita.” This competition was the first meet that the Swim and Dive team had been to and does not count for league. League for all levels start in mid to late March against Northview, West Covina, and Charter Oak High school.

Each meet has the routine of girls going first and then guys with typically three people from each team racing against each other. The relays for girls and boys were close races with just seconds separating each place in all levels. The beginning of the race started off strong for San Dimas, they were placing between first through third, but by the time the second half of the meet started, after a short break before the girls butterfly event, all levels began to place lower than what they felt was to their potential. Sophomore, Emily Robertson, “One of my friends that I used to be close to swims fly and I beat her, so I felt happy about that, but I was surprised we didn’t win because we did get a lot of firsts, but who knows ”. 

Even though some of the events had their weaknesses, others also had many strengths. Sophomore, Travis Pang says that “I was pretty nervous at first about going into the meet, but when I got into the water it was gone”. At the end of the meet, everyone felt accomplished, whether they tried and placed, or tired and didn’t do how they wanted to. For future meets, San Dimas Swim and Dive strives to be league champions, despite the loss to Bonita sophomore, Travis Pang says “I think the team has a good chance of winning our league title”.