The Bearcats had came out off the blocks hard against Santa Ynez, showing them they were not going to give the Pirates an easy fight. In the first competitive meet of the year, there were big events for the cats to swim. Team captain Jackson Parr wanted to make sure that his team would not lose this meet, and wanted to make sure the team secured an important victory to start off the season. After a series of eventful races, the Bearcats eventually pulled away from the Pirates and secured the win 100-47.

“I feel like we have improved a lot compared to last year,” Parr said after the meet. “I was swimming my main event, the 200 IM, and also filled in for the 100 breaststroke, because our team currently has no main breaststroke swimmer right now.”

Against the Tigers, the Bearcats had taken a loss last season by almost 100 points. Facing off against the reigning league champions, the Bearcats had a tough meet to win against the top team in the county. Almost every single event was a close battle, with the spots on the podium being just milliseconds apart. Leading swimmers for the cats such as Justin Haggmark had placed first in the 500 yard freestyle, winning by almost half a minute over the second place competitor. Other swimmers like John Seden Hansen had swam over four seconds faster than his fastest time this season. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, though, they were no match for the top team in the league, and had fallen to the Tigers by a score of 184-125, well improved compared to the 204-100 loss last season.

“I think we did a really good job compared to last year, and we had a few swimmers who did well in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle. Both of those events are led by Justin Haggmark, who swam a 1:52 in the 200 and a 4:57 in the 500,” said head coach Collin Moore. “John Seden Hansen swam a 2:22 in the 200 IM, dropping about four seconds from his best time. Jakob Baier has swam his personal best of 1:55 in the 200 freestyle for two meets in a row now.”