one meet, a million mistakes

The JV boys swimming team learn to persevere through blunders

on the afternoon of march 20th, the jv boys swimming team prepared to journey to El Dorado High School to compete in a swim meet. Having practiced hard for the past week, they expected to have a successful meet and hoped to overtake the Hawks, but did not predict the misfortune ahead of them. Starting with the very first event, things went amiss as soon as the 200 medley relay began; the Vanguard swimmers appeared to take the lead. However, the second swimmer, sophomore Aaron McClellan, unfortunately slipped upon entry and nearly left early, which would have resulted in an automatic disqualification, but, trouble still lurked within the El Dorado pool. After a safe exchange, junior james wallace dove into the pool as McClellan finished his leg of the race; as Wallace prepared to finish his portion of the relay, he miscounted his strokes into the wall and accidentally breaststroke-pulled even though his part was a butterfly! With the referee watching attentively, the relay team was disqualified despite finishing in first place. After recovering from that horrific mistake, the jv boys swim team looked onwards and hoped to pursue better outcomes in the more events that lay before them.

As the 200 individual medley started, things suddenly went wrong for sophomore Brett McCormack when he dove inhis suit came off! Scrambling to quickly put it back on before the referee caught him breaking stroke and anyone see his exposed body, McCormack pulled up his suit prior to surfacing with a butterfly stroke. Unluckily, the official saw this mishap, and had to disqualify McCormack. Upset with this disqualification, mccormack commented how he would never untie his suit before a race again! Suffering another loss, the team attempted to regroup and prevent future mistakes from happening, not knowing the numerous ones that lay ahead of them. The casualties continued as the events passed on: sophomore Chris Rincons cap fell off in the beginning of the 500 free and sank to the bottom of the pool, sophomore Anthony Dinh was disqualified in the 100 breaststroke for an incorrect pulldown, and several swimmers unfortunately gained time in their events. With only, the final relay left, the jv boys endeavored for a good race with no disqualifications. All was well, until the last swimmer. As sophomore Tyler Watts sprinted towards the wall after completing his 100 free portion of the relay, he awaited the next swimmer to dive in after him to take on his three body-length lead and finish the

race. However, the next swimmer, McClellan, was distracted by another swimmer. Realizing his misfortune several seconds after Watts finished his leg of the relay, McClellan ran to the block and dived in, already allowing the opposing team to surge into a half of the pool lead. In the end, McClellan swam valiantly, but was not able to recover from his late entry and ultimately was out-touched in the conclusion of the race. Despite the many, many mistakes the jv boys swim team made throughout the day, they still managed to put a valiant effort and nearly defeated the Hawk swimmers regardless of their predicaments. Several vanguard swimmers handled the pressure and were able to attain personal bests in their swims. Even though the meet ended in a loss, it will still be a great memory for all of the jv boys swimmers.