This season De Anza swimmers gave tremendous effort and impressed their coaches with positive attitudes and team support.

“Both men and women swam to their full potential,” said Swimming Coach Pete Raykovich. “This is my first year back and I definitely improved a lot. Team bonding was really good,” said De Anza swimmer Jessica Suess.

With only seven women swimmers, the team encountered the setback of running out of players to participate in all the events. Regardless, the Dons’ women’s team ranked number five in their Coast Conference competition. The men’s team ranked third with a surprise contribution from first time diver Jonathan Penn. In the California Community College State Championship, three De Anza swimmers qualified to advance ranking in the top 15. As a team effort, De Anza finished 27th at their state championship.

“In the final analysis, the best performance of the meet was the overall team performance,” said Assistant Coach Jerry Koch in an e-mail.

All team members were “aware when teammates were competing and stationed themselves at the end of the Don’s swimmers lanes and cheered loudly for the duration of each race.”