The GHS Swim Team pictured at their awards night with Coach Monica Terry (far right). Each team member received an award recognizing their individual strengths and progress throughout the season. Photo by Seti Long

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - An emotional awards night marked the end of Gridley High School Swim Team’s season.

After another year of outstanding performances from their swimmers, GHS Swim advanced to the Division 2 Championship. From there, 4 swimmers were selected to compete with the best-of-the-best from the northern divisions at the Masters Meet at Shasta College.

Senior Nico Donati, sophomore Billy Routon, junior Ryan Taranto, and Junior Annie Woods, accompanied by Jace Lewellen, Karam Singh, and Carson Allard to fill out the boy’s relay teams would represent Gridley at the elite competition.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Billy Routon, who has consistently made top times in his events said that it felt great to be moving forward to master’s with his team. “We put in a lot of work this season and as a team, we did better that we would have in the past – we really came together this year.”

At Masters, Routon would place 1st in the boys 100-yard backstroke and 1st in boys 100-yard butterfly. He placed 7th in the boys 200-yard medley relay and boys 200-yard freestyle relay.

Coach Monica Terry shared that when looking at Routon’s times, he out-swam division 1 swimmers that attended the event. Of his performance, Routon said, “I feel really good about it. I was really excited to be able to go and be able to really show up for Gridley.”

Taranto would compete in the boys 200-yard medley relay placing 7th, boys 400-yard free relay, and boy’s individual 50-yard freestyle placing 16th. Taranto shared he didn’t do as well as he had hoped. “It’s a little intimidating,” swimming at that level he said and that “I never thought a decimal point would be so important!”

Nico Donati would swim at his last Masters meet, competing in the boys 100-yard butterfly taking 15th place, boys 200-yard IM, boys 200-yard medley relay taking 7th, and boys 200-yard freestyle relay, taking 9th.  The senior said the event was bitter-sweet as it was his last high school competition but looked forward to continuing his career in swim in college.

Annie Woods would swim the girls 200-yard IM. “I felt honored to be invited back to Shasta College to compete at Masters! This is my first time competing in an individual event at Masters and it was a great experience!” she said.

An awards night was held at Pizza Roundup in Biggs after the Masters meet for swimmers and their families. Over dinner, Coach Terry honored each of her “phenomenal” swimmers with medals and specialty awards.

Taranto would receive the “break out” award for his progress throughout the season, Woods was presented the “best overall female swimmer”.

Coach Terry explained the special significance of the “bulldog award”, which is given to a graduating senior for excellent performance overall during the season. Donati would be the 2023 recipient, gifted an embroidered keepsake blanket to commemorate the event.

As team members hugged, said goodbye and left swim behind for the year, Donati shared that “this group of people is really unique,” the combination of the positive attributes made his experience amazing, ending with “It’s a great environment for growing not only as an athlete, but as a person.”