Baylis, Williams a Successful Balance

Consider Nathan Baylis and Josh Williams the yin and the yang of the El Camino Real High boys’ swimming team.

The only two seniors on the roster, Baylis and Williams are the perfect complement as captains as the youthful Conquistadores try to win the City Section team championship next month.

When Williams won the City 100 yard breaststroke as a sophomore, he leaped out of the water and hugged everyone in sight.

Let’s just say that Baylis is a bit more reserved.

“There’s no question that Josh is the flamboyant one and Nathan is more steady,” El Camino Real Coach Dave Johnson said. “But they work well together.”

After going undefeated in dual meets, El Camino Real showed why they will be the main challenge to Venice for the City title Friday at the West Valley League finals at Pierce College.

Only Blake Nord (200 freestyle, 100 butterfly) and Dmitry Uchitel (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle) of Taft were able to break through with individual victories in the non-scoring meet as the Conquistadores won all three relays and every other individual event.

Williams and Baylis played pivotal roles. Williams won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.76, finished second to Uchitel in the 100 freestyle and teamed with Baylis and sophomores Brian Brown and Mario Marshall to win the 200 medley relay in 1:49.11, and anchored the 400 freestyle relay, where El Camino Real timed 3:33.51.

Baylis won the 500 freestyle--where he’s the two-time defending City champion--in 5:12.34 and placed second behind Nord in the 200 freestyle in addition to the two relay legs.

El Camino Real has done well in individual events in recent years. Besides Williams and Baylis, Brown won the City 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke last year, the same events he won Friday.

While Baylis has shown steady improvement this season, the Conquistadores nearly lost Williams two weeks ago. Teetering on the edge of ineligibility, Williams made a successful last-ditch appeal to remove an unsatisfactory attitude mark from his report card at the end of the 10-week grading period. Williams already had one such mark--a second would have ended his season.

“It was totally my fault,” Williams said. “It was stupid, a senioritis type of thing that I shouldn’t have let happen. When I thought I wasn’t going to be eligible, I was just going to cry.”

“I was in shock,” Baylis said. “He was the one reminding everyone else to keep their grades up and he was the one we almost lost.”

Now Williams has his reprieve. After taking a trip to New York over spring break, Williams barely saw a pool for 10 days.

But his time of 1:04.76 in the 100 breaststroke Friday was less than a second slower than his City-winning time last year.

“I’m more interested in my time but if I win my events, it will be great because it means more points for the team,” Williams said. “If we win the [team] title, I’ll be so excited, I won’t just be hugging people, I’ll be kissing them.”