Swim finishes the season strong at D1 and D2 CIF meets

Samo’s swim team wrapped up their season on May 9 at the CIF Championship meet. The team also recently competed at the Bay League Championship, finishing second place by eight points after a questionable disqualification call on a relay race that ended up costing the team first place.

Two referees called a disqualification on the girls’ varsity team for a false start during their 200 Medley Relay. The team had a video playback that they attempted to show to the Bay League administrators, proving that the disqualification was unfair, however the administrators refused to watch the video. Varsity swimmer Lexi Burrel (’27) was one of the swimmers who attempted to show administrators the playback.

“We had video evidence that she didn’t false start… and they told us it is what it is,” Burrel said. “We ended up losing by eight points, and even if we had gotten last in that relay–we scored third–we would’ve won, and if we’d qualified for third we would have won by 30 points.”

The team didn’t bring their disappointment from the Bay League to the CIF championships May 6 through 9. The girls’ varsity team qualified for the Division I CIF Championship, with the boys’ varsity team headed to the Division II Championship. Varsity team captain Sloane Bryant (’26) reflected on her time on the team and expressed optimism for next year.

“It’s been a really good journey, and next year there are some people from my club team coming in so they’ll be fast next year too,” Bryant said. “I’m proud of how [the team] supports each other no matter what the result is, everyone is always proud of each other and there for each other, cheering, it’s been really nice.”

The boys’ team had their Division II preliminaries on May 6 finishing in second place, moving onto the finals where they placed 22 out of 49. The girls’ team competed in their Division I preliminaries on May 7 and also went on to the finals on May 9, placing fifth out of 40 teams and closing out a successful season on a positive note.

Matthew Flanders / Contributor

Samo swim ends their season on a strong note after making it to CIF-SS championships.