Pacific Index

Pacific swim is more than excited for the season ahead

Swimming is gearing up for another season with their very young program. Amidst a rebuild, Head Coach Tabor Waterstreet went out and got a lot of recruits, which will see the men’s swimming team as one of the youngest in its history. 

Among those is freshman Elias Bradbury, a dual-sport athlete with cross country and track & field. “I started competitively in middle school, and throughout high school in a club,” said Bradbury. “I also did some triathlons on the side, so I was constantly on the grind.”

While swimming isn’t his main sport, growing up, it helped Bradbury compete in other sports. “Swimming is a way to keep me moving,” explained Bradbury. “I want to keep up that fitness I had going on in high school and it’s helped out a lot with other sports. I just love the water! I love moving through it, and it’s great exercise.”

Bradbury plans to do the intermediate medley (the IM), the 200, the mile, the 1000, the 500, and the 100 freestyle. He plans to have fun and set some personal bests throughout the season, but is not putting too much pressure on himself. “I don’t have too many expectations of myself,” admitted Bradbury. “I’m just gonna try to swim my hardest and set some new personal bests in the events that I want to do.”

While Pacific Swimming is in the midst of a rebuild, Bradbury has full trust in Head Coach Waterstreet, as well as the older swimmers to help guide him and the other future Boxer stars.     “Junior Nicole Louie, senior Jazmyn Capron-Graves, and other upperclassmen are doing a great job with fostering us and showing us what it’s like to be a Pacific swimmer,” commended Bradbury. “Coach Tabor is doing a great job with helping us get our legs in the water and getting us ready to go for these next few years. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to lead to.”

While the season has only just started, Bradbury reported that some athletes are already starting to set new personal bests. “A couple people are already breaking their personal best in practices, so that’s super exciting to see,” he doted. 

One of those is fellow freshman teammate Jose Salas-Frias, who did it in the 100 meter breaststroke. “I don’t exactly know my time, but my coaches yelled out to me ‘you got a new personal best’ and I was shocked,” said Salas-Frias.

If Salas-Frias sounds familiar name around, his father, Romelio Salas, wrestled for the Boxers back in 1977 when Mike Clock was coaching. He earned All-American honors in 1980 and competed in the 1984 and 1992 Olympic Games representing the country of Columbia. Talk about gifted genetics! 

This history prompted Salas-Frias to follow in his father’s footsteps and attend Pacific University. “It sounded like a good fit for me,” said Salas-Frias. “And then I got an email from Coach Tabor that said, ‘hey you should come swim for me’ and now I’m hooked!” 

Boxer swimming travels to Linfield on Friday, November 7 to compete at 5 pm.