Daily Journal Boys’ Swimmer of the Year: El Camino’s Jeremy Tan

“The weather is definitely an issue,” El Camino head coach Jeff Vitale said. “But you kind of deal with that. It’s kind of hard to get good times when you swim at El Camino when you’re shivering and you can’t feel your feet.”

Daily Journal Boys’ Swimmer of the Year Jeremy Tan developed a modern approach to training through his four years as a standout swimmer at El Camino. A native of Daly City, Tan grew up in frigid temperatures, taking up competitive swimming on the youth circuit with the Daly City Dolphins Aquatics Club at Westmoor High School. By the time he arrived at El Camino, though, he had picked up shop for a warmer locale with the Burlingame Aquatic Club.

And as Tan used his senior season of 2022 to get back up to speed — having lost most of the two previous seasons to the COVID pandemic — he perfected a practice schedule that saw him training mostly at BAC’s home pool at Burlingame High School, reserving his rare practice days at El Camino for sessions just prior to home swim meets to acclimate.

“It is freezing, it is foggy, it is cold,” Tan said. “The water doesn’t help. It’s not warm.”

Acclimate he did, as Tan made El Camino history as a senior. Tan set two PAL records, albeit both during the PAL Ocean Division championships at an away venue in the comfortable indoor digs at Oceana. He set the new league mark in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 50.85 seconds, as well as in the 100 butterfly in 50.60.

“I believe I could have broken them sophomore or junior year but then COVID ruined it,” Tan said. “But I definitely knew I was able to do it. It was just a matter of getting up there and doing it.”

Tan was just getting warmed up at the PAL meet, though. The following week at the CCS championships at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara, Tan made El Camino program history by becoming the school’s first swimmer ever to capture a CCS championship. His time of 50.08 in the 100 back delivered a first-place finish and Tan’s being anointing as one of El Camino’s all-time greats.

Along with his second-place finish in the 100 fly with a time of 49.83, Tan’s performance put him in rare air in much, much warmer weather. He qualified for the CIF Swimming & Diving Championships state meet at Clovis West High School, becoming just the third El Camino boys’ swimmer ever to do so. The last was Nathaniel Macapagal in 2019. The year previous, EC sent its first-ever swimmer to the state meet, Tan’s older brother Nick.

“The main thing I was really happy about is the only people that made it to states were me and my brother and Nathaniel,” Tan said. “So, it’s just nice to share something with my brother and share something with the team.”

Tan had some big shoes to fill, walking into El Camino the year after the graduation of his brother, who was the first to etch his name into the PAL record book with his league record in the 200 individual medley in 1:52.95 in 2018. Yet, Nick’s legacy would prove to be much more than a one-off.

“I’d say my brother was definitely a special thing for El Camino because he was the first swimmer in a long time to perform how he did,” Tan said. “And after he graduated, everybody was like: ‘We can look forward to Jeremy Tan to take his place.’”

Macapagal was the first to pick of Nick’s mantle of greatness though. In 2019, Macapagal broke PAL records in the 50 free in 21.27 and the 100 free in 46.98. The younger Tan would become the third EC swimmer to add his name to the list, giving El Camino, of all schools, the most swimming records of any PAL school. Burlingame ranks second with three.

And there may be more EC swimmers to emerge over the next two years to keep the string of PAL greatness intact. While Tan earned Swimmer of the Meet honors at this year’s PAL Ocean Division championships, he was one of four Colts named to the all-PAL Ocean first-team. The other three were a trio of sophomores, Jose Garcia, Adit Rai and Ashton Phan.

“[Phan] wants to break my records, and I’m like: ‘Go for it,’” Tan said.

The Tan brothers do hold a unique distinction, however. With the younger Tan being named a scholastic All-American this season, he and Nick are the only two boys’ swimmers in El Camino history to receive the honor.

“It’s just me and my brother’s names on the plaque,” Tan said. “So, it’s just so special that we share something together, and it’s for the high school team as well.”

Now, Tan is set to follow in his older brother’s footsteps again. With Nick recently graduating from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, the younger Tan is set to attend the same school in the fall and will join the NCAA Division III ranks with the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s swim team, another small program in a large swimming pond — that is Southern California — that has seen its share of recent success, including the 2022 Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship.

“It’s the same school as my brother goes to and I’ve visited campus many times,” Tan said. “And knowing they’ve won a lot of championships I think I fit there really well.”