by Kayla Sheldon on 2016-05-18

GRAND TERRACE >> Grand Terrace High School’s Swim Team has exceeded expectations this season as some of these talented swimmers hold records for their school. Their success extends to League Finals, and continues with some of the swimmers clenching their spot in CIF. According to Head Coach Elissa Kirkland, their goal as a team going in to season was "to improve overall in wins. For boys to win League again. For the girls: to have more wins this season. Overall, for swimmers to compete at CIF," she said. The Grand Terrace swimmers didn't only meet those expectations. "[They] exceeded all of my goals this year," Kirkland shared. "I was really worried about my girl's team this year with losing several seniors and some female swimmers that didn't come back, but we had a great turnout of new girls and our returners really set the bar high." At League Finals, eight Grand Terrace swimmers took first place titles. Junior Kaylee Robles placed first for the 200 Free and the 100 Fly. Freshman Emma Arroyo took first for the 200 IM. Junior Alex Ideishi placed first for the 200 Free and 100 Back. Senior Issac Ballesteros took first for the 200 IM. Alex Ideishi, Junior Jonathan Thunquest, Issac Ballesteros and Senior Tanner Cline took first for the 200 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relay. The accolades didn't stop there as the men's All-League MVP went to GT's own Junior Alex Ideishi while the women's All-League MVP went to GT's Junior Kaylee Robles. In order to advance to CIF, swimmers had to place in the top 36 times in the whole division, across all events. Jonathan Thunquest, Alex Ideishi. Tanner Cline, Issac Ballesteros, and Kaylee Robles successfully clenched their spot in CIF. "I really expected my one girl, Kaylee to make CIF, and 2 events for my boys: the 400 relay and Alex in backstroke," Kirkland explained. "I was pleasantly surprised for Kaylee to qualify for 7 out of 8 individual events and for the boys to make it in the medley relay, the 200 relay, and 2 boys in the 100 fly. These were unexpected but great surprises." Kirkland also expressed the impressive improvements throughout the season. "Our JV boys really stepped up and bettered their times. They really pushed the varsity boys to get better because they were competing all season for varsity spots." Several of the new girls take over the top A spots, she said. "It really pushed our returning top two girls to better their times individually and in their relays." An emotional Coach Kirkland added, "I am really going to miss this group of seniors. Many of them started as freshmen and really helped to form this team when it began." [END] Hello, Last year I sent in some information about the Grand Terrace Swim Team. I would like to submit another for this year. Coach Kirkland's contact information is: elissa_swimordie@hotmail.com I would be happy to answer any of your questions as would the coach. Both the boys and girls teams took 1st in league. This is the boys third season straight and the girls share the title with Summit. I don’t have stats for Varsity and Jr. Varsity but the coach will know. The team as a whole took 2nd place at the Summit Relays. This year we have five swimmers who qualified for CIF in 13 events. (R) indicates that they hold the school record for that event. Kaylee Robles, (Junior)(Captain), qualified in the following 7 individual events: 50 free 28:28(R) 100 free 1:02:52(R) 200 free 2:17:25(R) 500 free 6:13:01(R) 100 back 1:12:99(R) 100 fly 1:09:13(R) 200 IM 2:35:04(R) Please confirm these times with the coach! Alex Ideishi, (Junior)(Captain), qualified for the following 2 individual events: 100 back(R) 100 fly I don’t have the times Jonathan Thunquest, (Junior), for the individual event of: 100 fly (R) I don’t have the times Issac Ballesteros,(Senior), Tanner Cline(Senior), Alex Ideishi,(Junior), and Jonathan Thunquest, (Junior) for 200 Medley Relay (R) 200 Free Relay (R) 400 Free Relay (R) I don’t have the times League Finals is this Thursday, May 5, 2016 with the CIF swim meet Wednesday, May 13, 2016. I can get you league winners on Friday if you want to add them to the story?? Below are a few pictures of the CIF qualifiers and the team photo with their 2nd place trophy.