Both boys’ and girls’ swimming recaptured their season momentum beating Monta Vista 90-79 and 123-63, respectively. After a disappointing loss to cross-town rival Gunn last week that ended their season-long winning streak, the girls got right back on track, securing their last win with the largest lead of the season.
Diving also helped rack up points, as Serena Yee (’13) won the girls’ competition with 224.85, her season high, and Cole Plambeck (’13) won the boys’ competition with 317.25, setting the new school record for the 6-dive boys’ varsity competition and passing the Central Coast Section Championship 11-dive point qualification requirement by 37.25 points. Plambeck also just returned from the 2012 Junior Spring West National Championships, at which he won first in the tower competition.
This year the Vikings have a record two swimmers, Jasmine Tosky (’12) and Byron Sanborn (’12) en route to the US Olympic Trials for the 2012 London Olympics. The duo will travel to Omaha, Neb. from June 25 to July 2 in hopes of representing the red, white and blue in London this August. In addition, Paly swimming and diving is looking forward to solid upcoming seasons starring notable underclassmen Andrew Liang (’14), Jayna Wittenbrink (’14), Katrina Nguyen (’14) and Karina Goot (’14) in swimming and Phoebe So (’14) and Jonathan Kosaka (’14) in diving. With a surge of incoming athletes, the swimmers think this year is the year for both boys’ and girls’ to finally win CCS.
“We want to get as many people as we can in finals and hopefully just carry on a good [boys’] season at CCS,” Eren Kiris (’13) said. “Our goal is to win CCS, obviously, because Bellarmine has won for 27 years in a row, so hopefully everyone swims like they should and we’ll have a chance.”
In swimming, Paly girls Katrina Nguyen (’14), Laura Cui (’12), Margaret Wenzlaw (’12) and Molly Zebker (’13) won the 200 yard medley relay with 1:57.74; Zebker also won the 200 yard IM with 2:13.79; Jayna Wittenbrink (’14) won the 100 yard butterfly with 58:90; Shannon Scheel (’12) won the 100 yard freestyle with 56:68; Quitterie Collignon (’13) won the 500 yard freestyle with 5:23.66; Katrina Nguyen (’14) won the 100 yard backstroke with 1:04.25; Laura Cui (’12) won the 100 yard breaststroke with 1:10.25; and Wittenbrink, Haley Mortenson (’13), Rachelle Holmgren (’12) and Zebker won the 400 yard freestyle relay with 3:45.51, qualifying them all for the Central Coast Section Championships (CCS).
Nadya Nee (’13) placed third in diving, scoring 187.50, captain Emma Miller (’12) scored 171.0, placing fifth, and So scored 168.6, placing sixth. Kosaka also scored 170.1, finishing second to Plambeck. Paly has already qualified six divers and over ten swimmers to CCS.
Now finished with their league meets for the season, the divers will compete at Gunn next Tuesday for the League Diving Championships and the swimmers will compete at Lynbrook from next Wednesday through Friday at the League Preliminaries and Finals. These two meets are the last chances for athletes to qualify for CCS.
CCS will run from May 11-12 at the Santa Clara Swim Center for both disciplines. Schedules will be announced within the next week.
