Burlingame’s swim teams wrapped up their shortened season on Tuesday, competing in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) finals. The varsity boys and girls teams finished 3rd and 2nd respectively.

The season was reduced to a five-meet round-robin between the six schools in the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD), rather than the usual eight-meet season. All meets were virtual, meaning each school swam in their own pool and compared times after they were recorded. While this was a great alternative for the team in terms of safety, it was impossible for them to fully replicate regular meets.

“It was hard to [perform] as well without the competitive atmosphere of a regular meet,” junior MaryRose Canniffe said.

Despite the challenges, all three teams were able to finish with winning records. Both the varsity and JV girls teams finished with a 4-1 record, and boys varsity finished 3-2. There was not a JV boys team this year due to a lack of swimmers.

This was also the first swim season since 2018 in which Burlingame had a home pool —following the 2018 season, it went under construction for 18 months, forcing the team to practice at Aragon in 2019. Last year’s swim team had just one meet before being forced to shut down, and San Mateo High School hosted it.

“It felt like such a tease last year. We got some practices in [our pool] but couldn’t actually compete in it… it was relieving to finally be able to use it,” head swim coach Jonathan Dhyne said.