The Santa Barbara Swim Club (SBSC), traveled to Irvine with 12 swimmers who qualified for the prestigious Grand Challenge meet this past weekend in Irvine. The meet featured record breaking swims by Olympic gold medalist Jason Lezak and a host of top national competitors, including fellow Olympians Ous Mellouli and Chloe Sutton.
SBSC came home from the swim meet with 30 personal best times. The results were a surprise to everyone but the National Team from SBSC.
Head coach John Dussliere said “We knew everyone else at the meet would be as tired from training as we are, but we decided we would race fast anyway. The mental aspect of our sport is sometimes more important to develop, than the physical.”
SBSC team members had many swims in the finals in the evening highlighted by championship heat swims from LoLo Blair (200 meter Backstroke) and Dawn Heckman (800 meter Freestyle). Team members (ranging in age from 13 to 31) included; Emro Williams, Cayley Cruickshank, Janelle Nguyen, Rayanne Nguyen, Emily Swindle, Karl Boscacci, Drew Casier, Darrell Eacret, Nolan Gardner, Bryson Alef and Josh Pighetti.
“With the CIF meet just weeks away, this is a great confidence booster for the SBSC swimmers. We have another week or so of pretty focused training before we start the rest cycle for CIF. These swimmers are ready to make a big impact at the high school championships.” said Coach Dussliere.
