Despite coming up short against rivals, Cerritos and Long Beach on March 21, The Rio Hondo Swim Team continued to improve greatly over the course of the season.

The team swim team had a very successful meet of their own on that warm Friday afternoon. Head Coach Mike Hinze knows he has been working his team very hard during practices but he continues to be very proud of them. He understands that all of his swimmers have been working very diligently and for them to come into every meet and compete at their best can be physically demanding.

Both Cerritos and Long Beach Colleges have always been known to have strong teams, but that wasn’t enough to intimidate Rio Hondo. Many Roadrunners performed great and were even able to set life-time records.

The 1650 yard freestyle is an event Hinze has been preparing very diligently for. Karina De La Rosa, swam an outstanding 21:15.52 on the 1650 yard Freestyle where she was able to place in second. She improved tremendously from three weeks ago where she cut her time by twenty seconds.

De La Rosa knows that the team has been working very industriously and how all the training reflected on their times at the meet. She feels very proud of all her fellow swimmers who are improving with each day.

Julissa Diaz was also able to place third in the event with a time 22:49.79 proving the team’s work ethic has been paying off.

Although the opponents won most of the events, Rio Hondo had nothing to be ashamed about, as they battled hard and earning themselves respectable times of their own. Hinze, continues to be extremely optimistic no matter what happens, and vows to push the team harder and harder to keep them on top of their game.

This meet marked the last competition going into spring break. During the vacation, the team went through even tougher challenges as Hinze put them through two and a half hour workouts twice a day which started Monday and ended on Wednesday.

Thursday’s practice went back to normal so that Coach Hinze could sharpen his swimmers skills to get them ready for the Conference Championships beginning on April 17.