De La Salle Swimming & Diving

Since its inception in the 1967 season, the De La Salle Swimming & Diving program has built a rich history of success as one of the top high school teams in Northern California.

The Spartan Swimming & Diving team has won dozens of League Championships, 9 North Coast Section Championships and 3 Top-5 CIF State Meet finishes.  Spartan Swimmers have won several NCS Individual and Relay titles, set countless League and a few North Coast Section Records.  De La Salle Divers have enjoyed remarkable success in winning League and North Coast Section Championships.  The Swimming and Diving program has produced over 50 All-American’s.  De La Salle’s first North Coast Section team championship came in 1990.  Remarkably they won the meet without winning a single event at the…it was a true “Team Championship” which demonstrates the culture that continues to drive the Swimming and Diving program.

De La Salle Swimming has consistently launched student athletes into successful collegiate careers with many achieving NCAA All-American status.  Several Spartan swimmers have gone on to participate in the US National Championships and US Olympic trials.  One swimmer, Niko Lahanas, reached the pinnacle as a member of the Greek Olympic Team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. 

Spartan Divers have had incredible success beyond the high school level with several Spartan student-athletes moving on to become NCAA All-Americans and competing at the US National Championships.  Spartan stand-out Kristian Ipsen won 3 NCAA Individual Championships representing the Stanford Cardinal where he was a 9-time All American setting an NCAA record on the 1-Meter board.  On the international level, Ipsen represented the United States as a member of the US National Team for 7 years winning several medals, including a Silver at the 2009 World Championships in Rome and a Bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The Swimming & Diving program’s success is rooted in the “Brotherhood” that is so instrumental to all of the student experiences at De La Salle.  Spartan Swimmers & Divers regularly practice and embody the ideals of hard work and perseverance.  Swimming & Diving is unique as it is a team sport made up of individual performances, and as such and as men of faith the team has embraced the essence of these words:

The body is one and has many members, but all the members, many though they are, are one body; and so it is with Christ.   

-1 Corinthians 12:12