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Panthers looking for banner season
By Dick Sparrer
Marisa Watts Cozort is looking for her Presentation girls swimming team to have a better season this spring than the Panthers did a year ago.
And if they do, that would certainly be quite a year for Presentation swimming.
The Panthers finished second in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League in 2000. And there's only one spot higher than second.
"It's been a long time since we've put up a new banner in our gym," said Cozort, the squad's head coach. "Hopefully this season will give us something to hang up for all to see."
A solid corps of seven returners join a talented cast of newcomers to give Cozort and her assistant, Heidi Wierzba, reason to be optimistic this spring.
Seniors Melissa Miller, Kiana Taheri and Jenny Voight, junior Laura Wheeler, and sophomores Lindsay Fraka, Nicole Taheri and Carlene Takaki were all "big point scorers" on last year's team that placed fourth in the Central Coast Section.
"This year's squad is much stronger than last year's," added Cozort. "Many freshmen come to our program with club and summer league experience, which is a blessing to a coach."
Jenny Wickersham, Maya Rao and Kayleigh Knight are freshman who Cozort expects will make a "huge impact" this season.
"And we have 14 other talented freshman, for a total of 17 newcomers," said the coach. "So we're blessed with a very deep junior varsity team as well."
Miller is a sprinter who will lead a strong freestyle cast that also includes K. Taheri, Fraka, Voight and Wheeler.
The Taheri sisters, Takaki, Fraka and Voight are also strong in the butterfly. N. Taheri is solid in the distance free events, Voight a leader in the individual medley and Fraka is a top backstroker.
The coach added that Wickersham is "very versatile" and that Knight is a top newcomer, "especially in the breaststroke events."
Both Cozort and Wierzba are former Presentation stars themselves. Cozort, a 1994 Presentation grad, was a four-time CCS event winner who went on to All-American honors as a swimmer at Purdue University. Wierzba, a '92 Presentation grad, went on to swim for San Jose State University.
Panthers swamp VC
Presentation swamped Valley Christian 135-48 in a meet last week in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
The Panthers won every event but diving in the meet against the Warriors, and Wickersham, K. Taheri and Voight were each double winners.
Wickersham breezed to wins in the 200 free in 1:58.10 and the 500 free in 5:10.28, K. Taheri sprinted to firsts in the 50 free in 25.32 and the 100 free in 54.80, Voight took the 100 fly in 59.87 and the 100 breast in 1:12.06.
N. Taheri nailed a win in the 200 IM in 2:17.74 and Kim Scherbart was a winner in the 100 back in 1:04.82.
Takaki, Wickersham, Voight and Miller opened the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay in 1:55.01. The Taheri sisters teamed with Miller and Lynn Smith for a win in the 200 free relay in 1:43.81, and Fraka, Wheeler, Smith and Voight won the 400 free relay in 3:46.00.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
