Midway into the season, Dougherty Valley’s swim team’s recent events have seen them perform relatively well at home, while faltering at away meets.

The DV Aquatic Department hosted their annual Wildcat Pentathlon on March 16, a swimming event that featured hundreds of swimmers from schools across Northern California as well as every swimmer on the Dougherty’s junior varsity and varsity teams.

Athletes from DV faced stiff competition, especially from schools like Campolindo and Clayton Valley, but managed to place first in seven of the 20 events held that Saturday.

The girls’ varsity team topped one of its events, with junior Nicole Stiles clinching first for the 100-meter individual medley (25 meters of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle each). Stiles placed third for 100-meter breast and sixth for both the 100-meter butterfly and 100-meter backstroke for an overall rank of second.

Stiles attributed her “good front end speed” as one reason for her victory.

Senior captain Anna Zheng placed third for the 100-meter freestyle.

The boy’s varsity fared better, winning three of their five events. Senior Mattias Blanco placed 1st in both 100-meter back and 100-meter individual medley, securing his spot as the fastest swimmer in the Men’s Varsity Triathlon.

Sophomore Austin Poon came in first for 100-meter breaststroke and second for 100-meter freestyle, earning a close second overall, and senior Ryan Park placed second for DV in 100-meter butterfly.

However, the following week, Dougherty Valley’s varsity swimming teams faced a series of losses at the 47th Annual Mission Viejo High School Invitational on March 23, securing 106 points, a mere 1.7 percent of the total awarded over the course of the two day meet. They ranked 16th out of the 23 teams. In comparison, swimmers from Campolindo High School won a combined total of 1,028 points, 16.3 percent of the total, and conquered the competition.

Of the 32 competitors from DV, only the two captains, seniors Zheng and Blanco, managed to earn any points –– Zheng for making tenth and nineteenth for 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle accordingly and Blanco for ranking seventh on 100-yard and twentieth on 100-yard fly.