On Friday 18, 2022, the College of the Sequoias aquatics team hosted a swim meet in Visalia against Fresno City and Merced College, in which COS scored a decisive victory over Merced with a 100 point lead over them in the total points.

COS finished the day at 1146.5 and Merced at 1033.5, with Fresno City trailing far behind with a total of three hundred and nineteen points, attributed mainly to Fresno’s lack of total swimmers.

While victory is sweet, creating lasting records that will keep your name in school history is the cherry on top. Three swimmers broke school records on Friday in the following events:

The two hundred meter freestyle relay by Joshy Peters, Connor Bruton, Mark Marroquin, Zachary Welch, with a time of 1:28.29, previously set in 2018.

The 200 meter butterfly, which was set by Jennifer Sanchez with a time of 2:59.69, breaking the record set by Chelsea Battle in 2019.

And finally in the two hundred meter backstroke, which because it has never before been competed by COS, it was an automatic record set by Sofia Mora with a time of 2:17.10.

This was the first event that our team matched up with such a sizable team, unlike the home opener meet which pitted the Sequoias against several much smaller teams.

Just like any athletic environment, talent will always clash with talent. Today was no different, and COS matching up against a real opponent was clearly a boon to their success.

Now, even though some real tough competition helped with breaking these records, that obviously doesn’t mean that their work is done. Not only for the swimmers for themselves, but for the team as a whole.

“My goal, before I can retire, is to have every record on our record board come from an athlete I have personally coached,” said the Head Coach, Allyson Briano.

Records have been shattered all season long, with four broken records this year, which is largely attributed to the program’s hard working mindset.

“There are some records that I think will take a person of especially hardore talent and work ethic to break, and it really motivates me as a coach to build my athletes up to the point where they can break those records,” said Allyson Briano.

COS aquatics will continue to dominate at CVC on Thursday the 24th of February, in a three day invitational at Mt. Sacramento College.

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