Thunder, lightning and heavy drops of rain are not the best environment for a swimming meet, but for six athletes from the men’s and women’s swimming teams, the show must go on for the state finals.

The state finals start today and will end Saturday at Diablo Valley College located upstate at Concord where scattered thunderstorms are expected to hit the area for the next few days.

“It’s always difficult to compete in the rain,” Matt Pifer said. “When it’s cold, your muscles get tight, so it’s hard to stay loose.”

Pifer will swim the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke. Other male swimmers are Matt Briggs, 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle and Daniel Fung, 200-meter IM, 400-meter IM and 200-meter butterfly.

“When it rains, we get cold so we might not able to swim at our best,” Fung said.

The rain could be an advantage for one Warrior, though, as diver Wendell Perkins is looking to add a state champion to his already impressive r?sum?.

“Sometimes the rain can be a little better because it helps me to see the surface of the water,” Perkins said, who has already broken conference and school records in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.

The women will send two of their best to Diablo Valley in Ashley Stanbury and Heather Mohle.

“We only got two women swimming in five events, but they’ve good chances at winning some of those events,” coach Corey Stanbury said.

The five events the women will be competing in will be 200-meter IM and 100-meter backstroke for Mohle, the 1,650-meter freestyle for Stanbury and both will compete in the 500-meter freestyle.

“I’m very excited about the finals because last year I missed them by three seconds,” Ashley said.

“I want to do well and not worry about anything.”

All the competitors advanced through previous times of the season or by having one of the fastest times at the South Coast Conference swim finals last week at Mt. San Antonio College.

“We truly had an outstanding swimming meet,” Stanbury said. “It was a lot of fun, they all swam well.”

The men finished third and the women finished fourth overall, but the most impressive moment for Stanbury was the fast times the swimmers put in.

“Everybody had huge drops in their times, they were all out of their minds out there,” Stanbury said.

Stanbury hopes to see similar results at the state finals, but for that to happen, the team will need to stay calm.

“If they keep their heads on their shoulders and keep their pressure down, we should get some wins,” Stanbury said.