Katherine and Raquel Gabayeron are sisters who are two of the top swimmers on the women’s swimming team and are leaders that inspire and motivate.

The Gabayeron sisters consistently rack up great times in their respective events and have provided the women’s swimming team with a nice boost to get it off to a good start this season.

“We tend to push ourselves during meets, if we happen to have the same events,” Katherine said.

“Not really during practice. But during meets if we have the same events, we’ll compete.”

Katherine, who typically swims the freestyle and individual medley events, has had a successful two years with the team so far holding numerous school records in events such as the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley.

“My motivation is wanting to go to (the) state (championships),” Katherine said. “That’s my motivation to make (the) state (championships) and place first.”

Katherine doesn’t have to endure the desires to reach the state championships on her own with her sister constantly there to motivate her even further.

Raquel swims the butterfly and individual medley strokes and is always pushing to beat her previous times.

“I swim for fun, mostly to stay in shape for the season,” Raquel said. “I work to beat my best times every day.”

Although unique and special that two sisters with lots of talent end up on the same team, it is not the first time that the Gabayeron sisters have swam together as teammates.

“It feels like high school again having my sister as a teammate,” Katherine said.

Raquel added, “It’s exactly that. It feels like high school again. It’s really cool. We just grew up as swimmers. This is what we have been doing our whole lives.”

Women’s swimming head coach Sergio Macias notes that the Gabayeron sisters have both provided a boost of morale and a presence of leadership on the team.

“They’re so competitive. They constantly push each other,” said Macias. “Once they hit competitions at swim meets, they push each other to the limit.

“They lead by example. They do the tougher events. They do the challenging events. The team does acknowledge and appreciate their work ethic and commitment, as well as their talent.”

Many teammates have acknowledged the work commitment of the Gabayeron sisters such as freshman teammate Carla Harvey who used to swim with both sisters at the club level.

“They love swimming. They are so much fun to swim with at practice,” said Harvey. “They’re good. They’re really hard workers and it pays off when they swim in meets.”

Katherine and Raquel both feel that swimming comes naturally to them and that actual practice is the least of their worries.

“The hardest thing is actually having to wake up to go to practice,” Katherine jokingly added.