D2 Sports
Swim teams win Mission League, go for CIF-SS titles By Eden Conner
The boys and girls swimming and diving teams completed their seasons 7-1 and 7-0, respectively, winning Mission League and sending multiple team members to compete in CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS) prelims and finals. Assistant Sports Editor Christopher Mo ’24 was the only swimmer who qualified for CIF State competition and set the school record in the 500 freestyle at the meet. Mo competed in CIF-SS and had one of the top 40 fastest times in the 500 freestyle in California, qualifying for the state championship. Mo swam a 4:30.26 at CIF State, setting the school record in the event previously held by Adam Copses ’19 at 4:31.21. Mo said that the team’s intense pre-season training prepared him to break the record.
“Our team packs in a lot of aerobic training and a lot of pace work, which allows us to hold a certain pace for a longer time,” Mo said. “The training definitely helped me, especially in the 500, where 20 laps of the pool is very crucial for being able to keep pace.” The girls relay team qualified for CIF-SS finals, placing seventh in the 200 medley relay and second in the 200 freestyle relay. Lily Neumann ’24 placed third in the 50yard freestyle and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle at CIF State prelims. Allison Nguyen ’23 qualified for CIF State Prelims in the 50-yard freestyle and f ly and Claire McLean ’23 placed 17th in the 100-yard free and 20th in the 50-yard free. Ethan Wang ’23 swam the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle at the
The Chronicle
May 24, 2023
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PLUNGING IN COLD: Katherine Blue ’24 dives into the water during a relay race in the girls swim and dive team’s 103-77 victory over Marlborough School on April 13. The win brought the team’s record to 6-0. CIF-SS finals. Wang said that the CIF Finals experience was unlike any meet he’d swam in before. “CIF [is] the grand finale of the season for those who qualified, so it’s a chance for you and your teammates to show off all that you’ve been working towards,” Wang said. “This also means that everybody there is competing at the
top of their form, so swimming at CIF also means that you’ll be meeting and racing some of the fastest people in California.” In CIF-SS prelims, the boys team placed 19th in the 200free relay and 19th in the 400free relay, just one place shy of qualifying for finals. Nicholas Barner ’24 placed 28th in the 50-yard freestyle and 32nd in
the 100-yard backstroke in CIF-SS prelims. Barner said he hopes to make big improvements in his swimming leading up to his senior season. “I’m hoping to improve physically and technically this upcoming season,” Barner said. “It will be hard, but with time and dedication both on and off the pool deck, I believe these goals are attainable.”
Robotics team to join the athletic department and receive PE credit By Jackson Mayer
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ROLLING INTO BATTLE: Milo Messinger ’25 and Michael Barr ’25 push their team’s robot towards the battlefield in a tournament March 11.
The robotics team has joined the athletics department for the next competitive season. Members of the team will now earn PE credit for competing on the team. Science and Robotics Teacher Tripp Reed (Dru Reed ’24) said giving PE credit to members of the team makes sense due to the type of work they complete. “Like any athlete, our robotics students are dedicated workers who spend hours and hours honing their craft,” Reed said. “The pursuit of excellence and desire to win is equally relevant on the robotics field as on the basketball court. Robotics competitions last ten hours daily and require physical endurance and mental toughness. To acknowledge these efforts, we offered PE credits to our competitors.” The robotics team’s transi-
tion to the athletic department comes as a result of the switch from VEX to FRC (First Robotics Competition). Reed said the format for FRC is different from VEX. In VEX, students would compete in small teams with two to five members, while in FRC, each team has anywhere between 15 and 200 members. Kaito De Anda ’24 said the team needed to adjust to the increased complexity of FRC. “FRC is a much larger scale robotics league with much more complex and advanced robots than VEX,” De Anda said. “It wasn’t until we went to our first FRC [competition] that we realized the orders of magnitude by which we needed to advance [the robotics program].” Team member Milo Messenger ’25 said joining the athletics department will give the team
more access to much needed materials and space. “We get access to some of the resources the athletic department has, like transportation, which was a big problem for us last year, and space on campus, and more funding,” Messenger said. The robotics team is the 26th team of the athletics department. Reed said the team joining FRC meant that it made sense for the team to become a part of the athletics department. “When the administration took a closer look at the structure of the FRC program, they determined that robotics had a similar progression to most athletic teams,” Reed said. “The move to athletics unified the program across both campuses. Students arriving in 7th grade will have a clear path for developing and improving their engineering, design and programming skills.”
Baseball eliminated from playoffs after scoring one run in 29 innings By Christopher Mo
The baseball team ended their season following a 1-0 loss against Orange Lutheran High School in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section (CIF-SS) Division 1 playoffs May 9. The team finished the season with an overall record of 22-9 and a league record of 14-7. This loss came after their 1-0 victory against Palos Verdes High School in the first round of the CIF-SS playoffs, where they managed to secure a win in a game that lasted two days and went into the 14th inning. The one run scored on a wild pitch in the top of the 14th inning against Palos Verdes was the only run the Wolverines scored in their final 29 innings of the season. Despite being swept by Notre Dame early in the season, the
team bounced back from their early season losses with a 12 game winning streak that spanned from late March to late April. Last season, the team finished 22-8-1 and made it to the semifinals of the CIF-SS playoffs, where they fell short against JSerra High School. Catcher Thomas Lieb ’24 said the team did not have an ideal start to the season. “We started out the gate pretty slow, not winning as much as we wanted to,” Lieb said. “Then we came together as a group, identified our problems and because of that, we were able to win more games.” Pitcher Tommy Bridges ’24 said the team was able to find their rhythm as the season progressed. “This season started out rough but gradually started to improve,” Bridges said. “We started to find our groove as a team and performed way better than the start.
An aspect of the season that stands out is the team’s ability to forget all of the past games and just focus on the current.” Bridges said the team has developed chemistry by playing baseball together for years on other teams. “Our team has always been super close,” Bridges said. “Most of us grew up playing baseball together. We all bonded around the same thing our whole lives and that led to the strong friendships that we have on and off the field.” The team will graduate 13 seniors this year. Lieb said a major part of his role as a senior next year will be to guide the younger freshmen and sophomores on the team. “We have to show the younger guys the ropes again next year and make sure that they can step up in the big situations,” Lieb said.
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FRESHMEN PHENOMENON: James Tronstein ’26 batted second and was the starting right fielder for the Wolverines in his first year on the team.