Friday, April 18, 2025 was the last swim meet of the regular season for the Berkeley High School Jackets. BHS faced a huge local rival, Piedmont High School. But more than that, it was the last regular-season meet for the 18 seniors on the BHS swim team. The afternoon started differently compared to other meets; instead of getting straight into the pool, the swimmers lined up outside the building to celebrate the seniors who have been such a vital part of their team for the past few years.
“This afternoon, before we get in and swim, we are going to quickly acknowledge 18 seniors. This is crazy,” Michael Wilson, one of the swim coaches, said before honoring each senior. Next, each senior shared their favorite memory during their time on the swim team. Cece Lutz, a BHS senior swimmer who swims the 100 meter freestyle event and has been on the team for three years, shared that her favorite memory was winning the West Alameda County Conference (WACC) last year.
Once they got back inside, the swimmers began to prepare for their many races that day, starting with the JV girls’ medley relay. This event consists of four swimmers swimming backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle in a relay race format, with each swimming one stroke for a quarter of the total distance. However, in all JV girls races, the BHS students competed against one another, as well as four JV boys from the Piedmont squad due to the fact that Piedmont has no JV girls team. Although Piedmont has a small team, they have four swimmers training for Division 1 recruitments, which gave Piedmont’s boys varsity team an edge over Berkeley.
After over 50 events, the swim meet drew to a close, with Piedmont having a 30 point lead, the score being 100 (Piedmont) to 70 (BHS). Throughout the race, there were some outstanding wins, along with races that were neck and neck. The girls’ varsity 200 meter medley relay race was close the entire race, with BHS’ team just beating Piedmont by 0.18 seconds. Races like this had student spectators anxiously circling the pool to get the best glimpse at who reached the wall first.
Post senior night, the BHS swim team still has one more meet left in the season — the WACC championships. “I think (this last meet is) different because it’s the last meet before we taper (strategically reduce training volume and intensity leading up to a race). For champs, we wear tech suits, so it’s sort of just like the last time in the season we wear these uniforms,” said Lutz. As someone who has attended championship meets and experienced success in past years, Lutz notes that there is very high anticipation surrounding WACC championships. BHS freshman and 50 meter freestyle swimmer Cecilia Grant is heading into her first championship on this swim team. She said, “I am excited and nervous ... I’ve seen people just giving their all … working their hardest to be the best team in all of them.”
With the season coming to an end, the swim team hopes to finish out strong with a positive outcome from WACC championships.