With summer drawing closer, nostalgia runs through many in the senior class as they commemorate their years spent at VHS

With spring season sports coming to an end, many senior students face the end of their high school careers and sports for good. To further share their experiences and memories are seniors, Emily Wright, Luke Anestos, Ben Cruzen and Grace Morton.

Senior Emily Wright, who has been swimming with VHS Swim and Dive since her freshman year, said, “My senior season has been going great so far, I was really excited to race at Ventura County Champs since that meet hasn’t been held since my freshman year which brought back a bit of a deja vu because I won the 100 Breast which was the event that I won freshman year. I love being team captain and being a leader overall; helping with coaching and technique work is something that I have really enjoyed. Next is just working hard and getting ready for league champs, CIF and possibly State. I am going to be sad about the ending of this season because it will be the end of my high school swim career but I couldn’t be happier to have spent it as a cougar. As for the future, I am happy about graduating since that is something that I have worked really hard towards and we will see what adventure comes next. Fortunately I will be continuing my swimming career at a Division 1 level representing the Wildcats at The University of New Hampshire. Swimming has been such a large part of my life that I couldn’t even imagine hanging up my cap and goggles quite yet.” 

Wright said, “My favorite memory from this season was at Ventura County Champs Finals during our 200 Medley Relay. This relay included Macy Dall racing the backstroke leg, myself racing the breaststroke leg, Ella Montano racing the butterfly leg, and Sarah Beckman racing the free leg. We went a time of 1:49.57 which got us our auto cuts for CIF. My favorite part about that race was screaming my lungs out as Sarah was coming into the wall and watching the clock tick knowing we had to go under 1:50.00 to get CIF along with watching one of my favorite freshman Macy Dall start off the relay, racing in my old tech-suit from freshman year that I wore back in 2019 at the same meet. Things like cheering on your team with everything you have left in you even after you just raced or watching a young swimmer race in a passed down suit really makes me think about how grateful I am to have been a part of this team for 4 years.” 

Senior Luke Anestos is currently finishing up his track and field season as a captain. He said, “My senior season started off rough due to me breaking my ankle during basketball season. It was one of the toughest things I’ve mentally gone through but as a captain of the track team, I stayed positive and was there for the team. All is well now though, as I was able to qualify for a couple of events in my last meet! I’m really going to miss my coaches and my teammates. With my ankle healed as well, I’m looking forward to the future of my track and field career as I have so much room to grow as a person and a teammate! My favorite memory of the season was just watching my teammates, I couldn’t run and have fun. So the only way I could was to cheer on my team and watch them all grow. We set a lot of goals for the team and we hit them all. I couldn’t be more proud of our program.”

Senior Ben Cruzen, a tennis player, is nostalgic towards his four years playing with his team. Cruzen said, “Our senior season has been extremely dominant with an undefeated record. I’m very proud of the way everyone performed on the team this year. My favorite memory from this season has to be having a team dinner at Toppers after defeating Pacifica in our first away match. This is my sixth year of tennis, fourth year on the team. I got into tennis because my mom had always played it and when she laid down her racquet due to illness I felt it was my place to pick it up and play.” 

Grace Morton, a phenom on the Beach Volleyball team, has played since she was 13 and plans to continue to play in college. Morton said, “I’d say my senior season was fun. I haven’t experienced a real sports season in a couple of years so it was fun to be playing again and be on the bus with the team going to away games. Also just getting to go to the beach all the time. I’m definitely looking forward to the future. It is kinda bittersweet that my high school volleyball career is over but I wasn’t anticipating playing in college so I’m honestly just excited to see where the future takes me.I didn’t know the rest of the team super well but over the course of the season I got to know them and I’ll definitely miss some of them when I leave next year.”