Gunn Ends Bellarmine Streak: CIF Central Coast Section Championships

2016 CALIFORNIA INTERSCHOLASTIC FEDERATION CENTRAL COAST SECTION SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Friday, May 13, 2016-Saturday, May 14, 2016
• Location: Santa Clara International Swim Center
• 2016 Champions: Girls – Palo Alto; Boys – Gunn
• 2015 Champions: Girls – Archbishop Mitty (2015 results); Boys – Bellarmine (2015 results)
• Live Results: Available Here
• Full Results
• Championship Central
• Participant Information Bulletin

The 2016 CIF-Central Coast Section Championships proved to be one for the record books with the boy’s team from Gunn High School winning the championships and ending Bellarmine’s 31-year winning streak. The Gunn boys had a strong day at prelims on Friday, setting themselves up to dominate the meet with many top three finishes. Going into the 400 Freestyle relay three points ahead, Gunn managed to hold of the top-seeded Bellarmine relay to solidify their historic win.

On the girl’s side, Palo Alto won the meet by over 40 points. Unlike the boys meet that came down to the last event, Palo Alto dominated from the beginning with tons of finals swims, bringing in enough points to comfortably defeat cross-town rival Gunn and third place finishers Archbishop Mitty and Cupertino.

Girls Meet

Opening up the meet, Cupertino High School finished first in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:43.42. The team of Ivy Chen (26.75), Jenny Ma (28.32), Avalon Schultz (25.20), and Anna Rajaratnam (23.15) all improved their splits to drop about a second from prelims. Second place went to Palo Alto’s Zoe Lusk, Grace Zhao, Katie Francis, and Peyton Wang (1:44.06) and Mountain View finished third (1:46.17).

In the 200 Freestyle, Pioneer’s Lauren Green got out to a half second lead in the first 50 and held on for the win with a time of 1:47.12. Mitty’s Cathy Teng finished second with a time of 1:48.30 and finishing out the top three was Vicky Wong (1:51.26) from Mountain View. The 200 IM was highlighted by an impressive win from Presentation’s Chloe Isleta with a time of 1:58.38, far ahead of the rest of the field. Harker’s Vivian Wang finished second with a time of 2:01.27 and Natalie Tuck from Castilleja finished third with a time of 2:03.11. Menlo-Atherton’s Izzi Henig posted a time of 22.79 for the win in the 50 free and Henig was the only swimmer under 23 in the event. Palo Alto’s Grace Zhao finished second with a time of 23.15 and Saint Francis’s Brooke Schaffer finished third with a time of 23.41.

In addition to her 200 free win, Prioneer’s Green took home took home gold in the 100 Butterfly with a time of 52.90. Green finished over a second ahead of second place finisher Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou from Santa Clara (53.95). Los Gatos junior Han Nguyen finished third with a time of 54.57. In the 100 Freestyle, M-A’s Henig won the event with a quick 49.09, almost a second and a half ahead of Harker’s Wang (50.40) and Saint Francis’s Schaffer (50.83). Mitty’s Teng earned her first gold medal of the meet, winning the 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:54.90. She finished far ahead of second place finisher Kathryn Bower from Sacred Heart (4:58.09) and third place finisher Natalie Tuck of Castilleja (4:58.75).

Palo Alto’s 200 Freestyle Relay team of Zhou (23.50), Kayleigh Svensson (24.86), Wang (24.10), and Claire Lin (23.09) won the event with a time of 1:35.55. Saint Francis finished second (1:36.25) and Mitty finished third (1:36.27). In the 100 Backstroke, Presentation’s Isleta took home her second win of the day with a time of 53.50, touching out second place finisher Krivokapic-Zhou from Santa Clara (53.68). Los Altos sophomore Gabrielle Anderson finished a far third with a time of 56.37.

In the 100 Breaststroke, Palo Alto’s Grace Zhao set a new CCS record with a time of 1:00.96, breaking the previous mark of 1:01.50 held by Sarah Liang. Cupertino’s Jenny Ma finished second, posting a time of 1:02.18, and teammate Avalon Shultz finished third (1:03.51). Finally, the 400 Freestyle relay team of Haley Arrington (53.43), Sophie Murff (53.06), Kate Denend (52.77), and Henig (49.02)from Menlo-Atherton finished first. The team from Saint Francis finished second (3:30.09) and the Gunn squad finished third (3:30.72).

Boys Meet

Monta Vista’s team of Nikhil Kundu (23.93), Keven Shang (25.59), Lucca Martins (22.34), and Felix Chiun (20.38) dropped over two seconds from prelims to claim first place in the 200 Medley Relay. Finishing second was the relay team from Palo Alto (1:32.70) and third went to Saint Francis (1:32.91).

Victory in the 200 Freestyle went to second seeded Alex Liang from Palo Alto with a time of 1:36.86. Sobrato’s Jarod Hatch finished second with a time of 1:37.19 and Saint Ignatius Prep’s Sheldon Boboff finished third with a time of 1:38.36. Saratoga’s Xiangfie Xie defended his 2015 CCS title with a win in the 200 IM with a time of 1:47.43. Second place went to Woodside’s Karl Arvidsson (1:49.38) and third place went to York’s Henry Blaul (1:49.66). In the 50 free, Albert Gwo from Los Altos posted the top time and earned the win with a time of 20.11, followed by Ben Ho (20.48) in second and Joao Ama (20.76) in third.

Earning another win at CCS, Saratoga’s Xie won the 100 Butterfly with a time of 47.40, followed by Valley Christian’s Matthew Thomas (48.46) and Gunn’s Diachi Matsuda (49.60).  Albert Gwo won his second event of the day in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 44.08. Second place went to Christopher Staka from Aptos (44.65) and third went to Ama from Gunn (45.28). Alex Liang won the 500 Freestyle by a commanding margin with a time of 4:23.62. Behind Liang, Hatch finished second, posting a time of 4:27.76, and Gunn’s Michael Lincoln finished third with a time of 4:28.22.

Bellarmine’s Nathan Yates(21.20), Ryan Lewis (21.74), Logan MacDonell (21.02), and Reed (20.15) took home the win in the 200 Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:24.11 by touching out the team from Gunn (1:24.29). The team from Saint Ignatius finished in a far third with a time of 1:25.37.

Aptos’s Chris Straka took home a win in the 100 Backstroke and set a new CCS record, posting a time of 47.18, crushing the previous mark of 47.91 set by Tom Kremer in 2012. Ben Ho of Saint Francis finished second (48.52) and Palo Alto’s Andrew Cho finished third (49.71). Woodside senior Karl Arvidsson won the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 55.23, followed by Blaul in second (56.22) and Gunn’s Max Pokutta (56.93).

Rounding out the meet was a thrilling race between cross-town rivals Gunn and Palo Alto. The Gunn team of Trent Tosky (46.55), Matsuda (46.85), Lincoln (45.97), and Ama (45.07) pulled out the win with a time of 3:04.44, followed closely by Palo Alto in second (3:04.46). The team from Bellarmine finished third (3:05.05), solidifying the win for Gunn at 2016 CIF-CCS Championships.