The Rebels officially kicked off their swim season on Thursday, February 28, against Palmdale High School. This was the first dual league meet of the season, and it was an action-packed one, to say the least. From a delayed bus to multiple swimmer incidents from the other team, there were many distractions for the Rebel swimmers.

Fortunately, the Rebels were able to keep their attention focused on their performance, sweeping Palmdale away with victories for both the boys’ and the girls’ team. The dual meet on Thursday was just a warm-up for the Rebels, as they prepared to face Valencia High, a division one school, on Friday, March 1, at an away meet.

The Rebels left Quartz Hill early Friday afternoon, setting off to face one of their greatest competitors of the season. The coaches deemed this meet to be one of the most anticipated ones of the season, as Valencia would be Quartz Hill’s toughest competition. Although it was not a league meet, it was still important that the Rebels raced at their highest level.

Oshini Cooray, a swimmer on the Quartz Hill team, recounted how she felt before the meet: “It is safe to say that the entire team was nervous about going against such a fast team. We have never swum against Valencia, so we didn’t know what to expect from them in the water. What we did expect, however, was that their fast times would also encourage us to swim better than we have before.”

The main goal the coaches hoped to achieve was for the Rebel swimmers to take advantage of the incredibly tough competition they faced. Essentially, the swimmers were encouraged to feed off of the fast-paced energy of the Valencia team in order to improve on their own times. The Rebels did exactly that, with almost every swimmer dropping seconds off of their initial times coming into the meet.

Cooray reflects on her races and the times of other swimmers: “Although the Valencia swimmers were swimming faster than we were, our times were dropping drastically. Our coaches were impressed and pleased with the results of the meet. Despite not winning, which no one expected to happen, we are all happy with our performance at Friday’s meet.”

The Rebels, unfortunately, lost the meet against Valencia High School; however, they walked out with better times than ever before. Both the coaches and the swimmers deemed the meet successful and memorable. The Rebels now have a four-day break until they compete against Lancaster High School on Wednesday, March 6. We wish our Quartz Hill swim team the best of luck in their upcoming meets!