Girls swimming had a strong season this year, with varsity and junior varsity placing second in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL). 

During the post-season, girls swim had five swimmers represent Woodside at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state championships: senior Audrey Chung, senior Edana Huang, junior Kate Stevenson, junior Celia Van De Wyer, and junior Abby Brown. Chung placed seventh in the 50 freestyle and 12th in the 100 freestyle while Edana placed sixth in the 100 butterfly. Even with placing so well, every school has competitors or rivals—this year, it was Carlmont.

“Our biggest competitor is Carlmont,” junior Margot Legros said. “They only have club swimmers, we are trying to beat them at PALs.”

The teams train every day except Sunday. Practices look different from day to day.

“Usually, we start with warmup, which is like a 400, a 200, a 100, and then we do 1050s,” sophomore Sarah Funge said. “Then we do whatever set the coaches makeup, which is new every day.”

A 400 is eight laps, a 200 is four laps, and a 100 is two laps, while a 1050 is 42 lengths of the pool. For varsity swimmers, it looks a little different.

“We usually take 10 to 15 minutes to get in, and we have a 20-minute warmup. That’s just like you can do whatever you want during warmup time,” Legros said. “Each practice we focus on a specific stroke and then we just spend an 1:30 usually focusing on that stroke. We do different types of drills. Before a meet, it’s always the same thing: we do short distances, and you practice the stroke that you need.” 

Athletes always have someone to look up to or get support from, no matter who they are.

“Coach Katie has been really nice, this season, having her as a coach. She’s very supportive, and she’ll always give you pep talks whenever you need it,” Funge said. “She always is very encouraging and it’s very nice to come to practice and to have her coach.”