The boys and girls swim season commenced with a roar in a girls varsity win against San Pedro High School with an ending score of 113-59.

As of March 27, the boys varsity team record 1-3, and the girls varsity team record is 3-1.

Swim coach Sophie Sabbah has been coaching at Venice for 14 years and started as a walk-on coach in the fall of 2002. Coach Sabbah says that she is confident in the abilities of her team.

“We always do a little better every year,” said Coach Sabbah.

Venice has not defeated its rival Palisades in a swim meet since 2008, according to team captain Ingrid Hernandez.

In a recent swim meet on March 27 against Venice’s rival team Palisades, the first event that took place was the diving competition. The referee demanded absolute quiet so that the scores of the divers could be heard. Each diver seemed to compose him or herself and adjusted the fulcrum on the diving board before performing their dive.

Venice swimmers cheered loudly for their fellow teammates when they were winning and when they were losing. At one point in the game in which a swimmer from Venice and one from Palisades were neck-and-neck during a relay, the cheering was deafening. The crowds on both sides alike went crazy when the Venice swimmer won.

Venice unfortunately lost the swim meet with a boys varsity score of 40-145, and a girls varsity score of 67-109.

“Whenever we compete against Palisades, we are all very motivated, and we perform very well,” said swim captain Danielle Cid.

The swim captains are Hernandez, Cid, Dylan Oki and Andres Carrillo. The dive captain is Sara Joy Salib.

All of the swim captains said that some of their most important jobs as captains are to keep members organized and motivated and to make their teammates feel supported.

“The way to improve is to continue to push each other,” said Oki.

According to dive captain Sara Joy Salib, the dive team is a small family within the entirety of the swim team that is very supportive.

“A big part of diving is trust,” said Salib.