Anzar swim team leading in Pacific Coast Athletic League

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Anzar High School’s swim team continued the Hawks’ tradition of excellent athletics by defeating King City High School in its April 11 meet. The girls scored 86-84, for an overall 6-0 record for the season, and the boys scored 90-62, for a 3-2 record. The girls’ win places them at the top of the Cypress Division of the Pacific Coast Athletic League. The boys are second in their division.

“Our team continues to thrive,” said head coach Larry Willis, “despite being around one-tenth the size of our competitors. The team’s a little smaller than last year, but the kids we have have improved a lot. So, actually we are better than last year.”

Wills said the King City meet was the toughest of the season, with the girls’ winning score being the closest so far.

“They have a lot of people,” Willis said. “It’s a much larger team, and they have a lot of good swimmers. They’re good—the best in the league other than us.”

The size of a team is a critical factor in swimming, as scoring is done across the first five contestants in any given race. This places the Anzar team at a big disadvantage.

“Even if we win first,” Willis said, “If they get second, third and fourth, they beat us even though we have the fastest swimmers. We need more swimmers, but 11 percent of the student body is already on the team.”

Willis attributes the team’s success to the hard work of “a large number of very talented athletes” and said they are exceptional students beyond their accomplishments in the pool.

“Last year,” he said, “we had 11 scholar athletes out of 28 swimmers—straight A’s or better, 4.0 or better. They’re just hardworking, good kids.”

During the  meet, several Anzar swimmers set new school records:

• Oliver Doupnik: 50 yard freestyle, 26.13
• Oliver Doupnik: 100 yard freestyle, 58.54
• Oliver Doupnik: 200 yard freestyle, 2:11.53
• Vinh Lieu: 100 yard breaststroke, 1:17.03
• Girls 400-yard freestyle relay: 5:19.62  (Victoria Flores, Scarlett Capuano, Annaliz Aleman and Ava Kaitlyn Kapadia)

Willis cited Doupnik and Kapadia as two of his best athletes. He described team captain Kapadia, 17, as a “good leader who is very confident when it comes to swimming.”

“She is a good communicator,” he said. “And she is very persistent. When she wants to get better at something, she’ll keep trying until she achieves that goal.”

Kapadia, a junior, said she thinks the team does very well because of their commitment and credits Willis with being a great source of motivation.

“We want to get better since we’re such a small school,” she said. “He gives us hard exercises but also mixes in fun activities. I think that motivates our swimmers to come to practices more often than the other teams.”

On one recent “fun” day, Willis loaded up the pool with floaties and served eight boxes of pizza.

“Everyone was playing around and really bonding,” Kapadia said. “That’s another great thing about the Anzar Swim Team. Our strong bond helps us work together more.”

Willis said that the 17-year-old Doupnik, also a captain, can be relied upon to be exceptionally hard working.

“He attends practice consistently,” he said. “He swims all year round, with Quicksilver when he’s not swimming for us. And he is also a 4.0 student.“

Willis challenged Doupnik to enter a few events that were not standard for him, resulting in his breaking the 200 yard freestyle record.  

“I did pretty good in everything today,” Doupnik said. “But I don’t usually do 200 and this was my time at a meet. Larry put me in this specifically so I could get the record for that, and I trusted him.”

Doupnik said recruiting for the Anzar team can be a bit challenging. Since the school does not have a pool, the swimmers have to be transported to Watsonville High School for practices and meets. 

“They don’t want to spend the time driving over,” he said, “or spend the gas money coming over every day.”

The time spent in practice, Doupnik said, goes beyond that of other teams, but he believes it pays off in the end.  

“The Watsonville team,” he said, “gets off days every once in a while, hanging out and playing water polo. We have had two free days in the past school year, but the dedication that is instilled in us by our coach is what really helps us.”

The next match is on April 25 against Seaside High School. Willis said he expects positive results.

“King City beat Seaside,” he said, “and we beat King City. So, if everybody does well, we should win.” 

Anzar’s season record

vs. Alvarez High School: Girls 126-35; Boys 69-74

vs. Notre Dame High School: Girls 115-33

vs. Alisal High School: Girls 97-57, 97-71

vs. Watsonville High School: Girls 105-55; Boys 96-30

vs. North Salinas High School: Girls 88-77; Boys 75-84
vs. King City High School: Girls 86-84; Boys 90-62.

The Hawks have one final home meet on April 25 against Seaside in Watsonville before the May 2 league championships at Hartnell College.

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