Bruins, as well as competitors, drilled through one another in order to win the championship.
On April 28-29th, Bear River hosted the PVL Swim Championship with the intent on winning a Pioneer Valley League flag to hang proudly in our gym.
There were quite a few exceptional teams that Bear River had to compete against, including: Placer, Foothill, Forest Hill, Lincoln, Center, and Colfax.
Senior Jessica Craig, whose primary strokes are distance and breaststroke, elaborated on what the PVL Swim Championships really are.
“It’s one big swim meet where, after each high school individually goes against another, we all come here to race the best of the best in PVL champs,” she said.
Craig continued to explain how competitive she believes Bear River is.
“I’d say we are a main competitor in Swim because the girls team has won PVL champs for the past six years, I believe,” she said.
Junior Itzel Reyna, whose primary strokes are freestyle and backstroke, concurs with was Craig.
“Yeah, we’re a pretty competitive school when it comes to Swim,” she said. “But I would say the girls more than the boys because the majority of the team are girls.”
Reyna further embellished on who our biggest competitor is and how we have to win to keep Bear River’s Swim title.
“Placer is definitely our biggest competition,” she said. “This weekend we basically have to beat them to share the PVL championship flag in the gym and, if we don’t beat them but another school does, then we would end up with the flag.”
Sophomore Stuart Wenger, whose primary strokes are butterfly and freestyle, explained how intense the meet was.
“There was no room for slack this year. Every race you had to get psyched and ready to go even if you were exhausted,” he said. “It was balls to the wall every time. ... We overcame the odds because a lot of the schools have more people than we do.”
Coach Ethan Green shared that a record-breaking moment occurred during the Championship when Bear River broke the school record for the Girls 200 Medley Relay by over 2 seconds, thereby beating Placer. He also shared a moment that could have jeopardized the Bruins’ shot at the winning title.
“One of the girls got disqualified in the 100 Breast and we missed out on the points she would have earned,” he said.
Coach Green wrapped up on how he felt about the season and PVL Championship.
“(I’m) very pleased with both the Girls and Boys teams and their efforts at the end of the Swim season,” he said. “(It was a) great season. Both the Girls and Boys teams improved and really stepped up when it mattered the most at the PVL Championships.”
