With swim season coming to an end, star swimmers prepare for sections and league championships.

Two female swimmers have a very good chance of qualifying for this chance, Bridgette Houser and Lane Fishburn. Houser, being only a sophomore, is keeping up with the older swimmers in her breast stroke races, finishing in the top three during every meet.

“I always have to work hard to keep up,” Houser said. “The reward is always worth it, finishing the year at championships is a must for me.”

Both Houser and Fishburn have competed in championships before and know the level of competition that is present during this meet. All of the best swimmers from schools like Lincoln, Lodi, and Bear Creek come together and compete for the title of the best swimmer in their select race.

“Races are a lot faster than during league,” Fishburn said. “With only top swimmers in the race, you really have to push yourself to swim as fast as you possibly can.”

In order to qualify for this meet, you must already have a top eight time in your select race. Those times are recorded during league meets.

If you qualify for championships, you and the other teammates who qualify practice together. Usually only six or seven swimmers from Tracy High, both boys and girls, qualify. The coaches, Erin Mann and Jessica Lenart have special practices for only those swimmers to prepare them for the races.

“We make them swim as fast and much as possible to prepare for championships,” Mann said. “We push them hard because we know they can handle it.”

Girls’ diving also coming to an end, coach Dominique Banner is seeing improvement from all of the young girl swimmers.

“Through the season, the young divers have made many improvements,” Banner said. “If they continue through to next year and stick with it, they all of the opportunity to be better divers than they came into this year being.”