Crean Lutheran Girls Slip Past Glendora To Repeat CIF-SS D2 Title

2016 California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Swimming & Diving Championships

• Diving: Monday, May 9, 2016
• Swimming: Prelims – Friday, May 13; Finals – Saturday, May 14, 2015
• Location: Riverside City College
• Defending Champions: Crean Lutheran girls, Laguna Beach boys (2015 D2 Results)
• Psych Sheet: Division II
• Final Results: Available │ Team Scores │ Entire Meet
• Championship Central

Repeating their Division II title wasn’t obvious; Crean Lutheran had lost quite a few points when Ella Eastin graduated last year and while the remaining squad was tough, they would have to do everything right to beat a Glendora team that was 29 points stronger on paper coming into the meet. The Saints rose to the challenge, making up 23.5 of those points with excellent results in prelims. They would have to executive perfectly in finals, though, to make up the remaining 5.5-point deficit. And that’s just what they did. In the end the Saints won their fourth consecutive CIF team title (2 in Division III, 2 in Division II), a perfect ending for their talented seniors.

Girls’ Meet

Crean Lutheran wins girls’ title at 2016 CIF-SS Division II championships. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Crean closed the gap with the opening relay, picking up 12 points over prelims and effectively knocking Glendora off the podium. Having qualified fifth in prelims, the Saints made a change on the breaststroke leg but the real difference came with significantly faster splits from each of the remaining swimmers. Senior Emily Eastin went 25.06 (-1.1 from prelims) to lead off; she was followed by junior Rachel Taylor (29.80), senior Tianna Jorgenson with 25.59 (-.6) and senior Katia Young with 24.18 (-.2) for a combined 1:44.63. Diamond Bar (Kathleen Gani, Kelsey Lloyd, Kelly Cheng, and Jenna Lloyd) touched out King (Courtney Vincent, Laurent Vitort, Anissa Barroso, and Claire Fisch) by 1/100 for second place with 1:45.49.

Ayala senior Kenisha Liu set the pool on fire in the freestyle events, winning both the 200 and 100 with new division records. Liu began with a lifetime-best 1:45.89 in the 200, clearing Taylor Ault’s 2015 D2 mark of 1:46.07 and beating the field by 2 seconds. In the 100, she beat her own record of 49.60, set last year. Liu split 23.96/25.3 for 49.26, a mere .04 off her PB. Crean’s Garcia wasn’t far behind with 49.98, while Mira Costa freshman Alexandra Crisera edged King senior Claire Fisch, 50.21 to 50.39, for third. Garcia touched out Fisch in the 50 free, 22.99 to 23.01.

Glendora junior Alexis Margett won the 100 fly with a dominant 52.73, .14 seconds off the division record she set in prelims. Defending champion Eastin of Crean and Glendora’s Catherine Sanchez, last year’s runner-up, finished second and third in 54.12 and 54.14, respectively. The 100 fly proved to be one of the important races in the team battle, as Crean picked up 3 points over prelims and Glendora lost 5.

Margett also won the 200 IM, coming to the wall in 1:59.79, 2 seconds ahead of Ayala sophomore Mikki Thompson (2:01.88) and Diamond Bar junior Kathleen Gani (2:03.74).

The 500 free was an exciting stroke-for-stroke contest between Crean senior Brittany Kampfer and Glendora sophomore Katie Sulkevich for the first 400 yards. Then Kampfer began to pull away and Sunny Hills junior Courtney Tseng turned on the jets. Kampfer won in 4:49.89, while Tseng outsplit Sulkevich by 1.7 over the last 50 to steal the silver medal, 4:51.27 to 4:52.64.

Eastin won the 100 back in 54.34 ahead of Los Osos freshman Emily Trieu (54.82) and Mira Costa’s Crisera (55.78). Diamond Bar sophomore Kelsey Lloyd won a very tight 100 breast race. Redlands senior Niki Proctor turned together with Lloyd at the 50, but Lloyd came home .85 faster and claimed victory with 1:02.80. Lloyd’s older sister, senior Jenna Lloyd, also had an impressive second 50; she slipped by Proctor to nab second with 1:03.72 to Proctor’s 1:03.74.

Thanks in part to a stunning 22.70 anchor from Liu, Ayala’s 200 free relay (1:35.26) beat out both Glendora (1:35.53) and Crean (1:35.90). Freshman Ariel Wooden (24.86), senior Megan Delgado (24.30), and Thompson (23.40) set it up for Liu’s anchor.

In the 4×100, Ayala came within .04 of sweeping the free relays. Wooden, Shannon Steele, Thompson, and Liu combined for 3:25.95, while Crescenta Valley went 3:25.91 for the win. Liu’s anchor of 48.61 was 1.3 seconds faster than CV’s but it wasn’t enough to erase the 1.34 deficit she had going into the final leg. King (3:27.34) held off Glendora (3:27.72) for third.