The swimming and diving team had a very successful MCAL season, with the girls bringing home the 10th consecutive MCAL pennant and the boys achieving a very close third behind Terra Linda and Tam. A few qualified swimmers, relay teams, and a single diver then continued on to the North Coast Section meet on May 16-18.

NCS was particularly intense this year, as multiple national records were broken and Olympic trial finalists competed.

The girls’ team placed 19th overall, with sophomore Emma McCarthy placing 10th in the 200 free. Neither of the two boys’ individuals finaled in their races, although junior Yaroslav Kurakin was fractions of a second away from making the finals. Diver junior Raichel Perper placed fourth after placing sixth at NCS last season.

Although Redwood’s success at MCAL was mostly attributed to having such a large team, junior Ariana Traub said that much less focus is put on the NCS meet, especially as the majority of the team doesn’t participate.

“Redwood is never really thinking about winning NCS,” Traub said. “By the time we got to NCS we were done. We’d spent all of our emotions on MCALs and winning so we didn’t have very much left in the tank for NCS.”

Junior Tom Cavanaugh, who was seeded 25th at NCS for the 200 meter free, recovered enough to participate at the meet after an elbow injury restricted him from competing the majority of the season. Although the competition was tough, he said he was glad to be able to attend the meet.

“It was probably the fastest high school meet in the country this year,” Cavanaugh said. “I was watching national records being set, and it was really fun to be a part of. It was kind of a historic meet.”