Dominating the lanes: Can swimming continue their winning streak?
Samo kicked off the swim season this year with a win in their first meet against Venice and Cleveland on Feb. 26, following a successful prior season. Last year, the girls’ and boys’ teams went through to the CIF-SS preliminary round for the 4x50 freestyle relay, with the girls’ team further advancing to the CIF-SS finals. Individually, Samo also sent multiple swimmers to the CIF-SS preliminaries, in which some also advanced to compete in the CIF-SS finals.
While they didn’t achieve their desired victories in the CIF finals, head coach Matthew Flanders looks forward to improving and continuing their success for the new season.
“We are getting stronger every year and hopefully, we will place higher in the league rankings and CIF,” Flanders said. “I think the girls can make a real run in the league and CIF this year with Daniela Petran (’25) and Gabriella Gooden-Brito (’28) leading the way.”
Petran, thought to be a key player by Flanders, hones in on what it will take for Samo to have a successful season.
“I think this year we can improve and focus more on our relays and team aspect because a lot of last year was focused on individual events. I hope to make it back to states again this year, although I suspect with our current team we can make it with relays and individually. But I would definitely like for us to win CIF’s,” Petran said.
Brito, who also competed and qualified in the Olympic trials last summer as the youngest swimmer there, talked about her goals for this season.
“I hope to get a lot of records and obviously go to states and CIF. Most of all, I just want to have fun and hopefully we can get Samo to D1 next year because we are at D2 right now,” Brito said.
Samo’s first meet was held on Feb. 26 against Venice and Cleveland High School at the Drake Pool. Dominating in multiple events and relays, both the girls’ and boys’ teams won the meet with their combined score tallies.
Jackson Colby (’25), the team captain for the boys’ swim team this year, stood out in the first meet by finishing 10 seconds ahead of the others in the 500 Yard Freestyle.
“We’ve been doing great so far, and we hope to get more players to qualify for CIF this season,” Colby said.
Some Samo swimmers also competed in the South Bay Invitationals held on March 5 and March 7, with the girls’ team finishing third out of eleven schools and the boys’ team finishing fifth out of ten schools. Samo shined in their relays, with the girls finishing second in the 200 Yard Medley and 400 Yard Freestyle Relay, third in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, and the boys finishing fourth in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. Individually, several students also finished high in their categories, including Paloma Kimura (‘28), Sloane Bryant (‘26), Brito and Petran.
On March 12, Samo also faced Peninsula and Palos Verdes in an away game, with upcoming meets against West Torrance on March 20 and El Segundo on March 27.