LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Channel Cats hosted a dual meet with the Willits Otters on Saturday at the Westshore Pool.  

It was the very first competitive meet for many swimmers from both teams and the focus was to introduce these new swimmers to competitive swimming.  

“Due to the uncertainty of the Westshore Pool we were forced to cancel our regular summer meet and when Willits called and suggested this get-together, we were more than excited to host it,” said team President Jennifer Hanson. “The city of Lakeport has been very supportive of our summer program and allowed us to go forward with this one-day, training meet.”  

From their summer program of more than 160 swimmers, 31 swimmers from the Lake County Channel Cats and 24 swimmers from the Willits Otters came to the pool on Saturday to participate in the dual meet.  

Of the 31 Channel Cats, 20 had never participated in a competitive meet before Saturday.  

“This was a wonderful opportunity for our newest swimmers to establish times and get past the hurdle of swimming against the clock for the first time,” Head Coach Agustin Merodio said. “Now that they have experienced competition, we hope that they will participate in some of the upcoming USA Swimming competitive swim meets.”

Swimmers as young as 6 years old competed in events like a kickboard race and 25 yard freestyle, breast, butterfly and backstroke.  There were events for all swimmers from every competitive level.  

“It was wonderful to see the older swimmers mentoring the younger, more novice swimmers,” Merodio added said. “Competitive swimming can be a little intimidating as first but the older swimmers helped the younger swimmers understand that it can be a fun and rewarding experience.”

The Channel Cats swim team will next be participating in the North Bay Aquatics League meet next weekend and the Ukiah Dolphin swim meet at the end of the month.  

The Channel Cats also would like to send special thanks to Cliff and Nancy Ruzicka for their steadfast dedication to the Westshore Pool and the Lake County Channel Cats.