Tracy Press

League contests for high school swimmers will start Friday.

The gathering of swimmers Saturday at Tracy High wasn’t exactly a competition, but swimmers from Tracy and West high schools wanted it to be a good start to their season.

“This is where people get their starting times to improve on for the year,” said Tracy High senior Alyssa Britt, who established times in four events to qualify for the section meet later this season. She added that it’s fun to have swimmers from West High in the lanes as they also go for qualifying times.

“A lot of first-time swimmers get a feel for what a meet is supposed to feel like,” she said.

The times recorded Saturday will help coaches Pinkie Phillips from West High and Justin Patterson from Tracy High form their relay teams and will also determine the top swimmers from each school in each event.

Competition starts in earnest Friday, when Tracy meets swimmers from Lincoln High at the Tracy High School pool and West swimmers visit Stagg. It will be the first league meet for both schools, and each will compete once against every other team in their respective leagues — Tracy in the San Joaquin Athletic Association and West in the Tri-City Athletic League.

The biggest difference between the Tracy and West teams is size. Patterson has 58 swimmers on the Tracy team, which assures that he can enter three swimmers, the standard high school entry, in just about every event.

West has 18 swimmers. Phillips said many of the swimmers who could be on her team switched campuses to be in Tracy High’s International Baccalaureate academic program.

The similarity is that both teams depend on camaraderie to help younger swimmers improve.

“Our team is really close this year, so that’s going to help,” said Nicole Brown, who returns as a junior after going to the sectional meet last year as a sophomore. “It’s really good to be a junior or senior and help the new kids.”

West senior Katie Berlelson said she welcomes the competition from new team members.

“We definitely push each other to get better,” she said.

Both teams will have their meets at Tracy High. A competition pool at West High is under construction, and the West swimmers said this is the year to encourage younger students to join the team.

“Next year, when we get our pool, a lot more people will come out,” West sophomore Alistair Shaw said. “This will be a good growing year for us.”

• To reach Sports Editor Bob Brownne, call 830-4227 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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