Swim team kicks off season with three losses in Bay League

Spencer Hammond
Staff Writer

In a disappointing start of a potentially successful season, the boys and girls varsity swim team kicked off the season with three losses to Santa Monica, Palisades, and Huntington Beach.

Not only a loss of talent derived from last years class, but also a change in coaching staff hurt the Mustangs as they prepared for the upcoming season. Reichardt remains the head coach, but a change in coaching style has been challenging for the team.

“As a team we have had to go through quite a bit of change because of the whole new coaching staff, but we have been putting the work in and have been improving bit by bit in preparation for Bay League,” junior Macy Mckeegan said.

The boys swim team is having an off year, not only with the loss of star swimmers in last years graduating class, but the inability for the players to reach their full potential. The girls are performing well with the great amount of talent from freshman and sophomore swimmers.

“Costa is looking pretty strong so far, we’ve swam against a lot of tough teams so far so it’s helped us spot what we need to work on,” junior Cole Keefer said. “This year our girls team is really strong, but our guys need some work.”

Despite Costa facing tough matchups in their first three swim meets, they continue to improve day in and day out. The swim team puts in more hours and more work than previous years, in hope to attain success this season.

“This year I think that our team has a lot of potential we just haven’t achieved it yet,” junior Mikey Portis said. “I’d say some of our individual events, aside from freestyle, are some of our weaker events and I definitely think we have strong relay teams.”

Costa hopes to enter Bay league in top shape and compete at the highest possible level. They still have an entire season ahead of them to make up the early three losses in their season. With practice and persistence, Costa has been working harder than ever.

“The practices in the morning have helped just by really pushing us and giving us a lot of yards so we can be as well conditioned as possible,” Portis said.

The boys Varsity team swims on March 24 in the South Bay Invitational Prelims and the girls Varsity team swims on March 25 in their South Bay Invitational Prelims.