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Sancov Scares Rooney Record with 43.4 100 Free in CIF State Finals

2017 CIF State Championships

The 2017 CIF State Championships are now in the books after the completion of Saturday’s finals session. The Monte Vista women came home with the state title, while Oak Ridge captured the team title on the men’s side. Read on for highlights from Saturday’s events.

One of the most exciting events of the meet was the men’s 200 free, which featured a showdown between Northgate’s Alexei Sancov and Oak Ridge’s Bryce Mefford. The two were separated by just .05 at the halfway mark, with Meffor holding a narrow lead in 46.43. They were neck-and-neck up through the final 50, but Sancov popped off a 23.61 final 50 split to win the gold in a Meet Record time of 1:34.25, while Mefford followed for silver in 1:34.82.

Sancov also nearly downed the Meet Record in the 100 free, but he did it as the leadoff swimmer on the 400 free relay. Sancov got the ball rolling for his team with a 43.46, just missing the individual 100 free record of 43.44 set by Maxime Rooney in 2016.

After coming up just short in the 200 free, Bryce Mefford went on to win an individual gold of his own in the 100 fly, posting a 46.85 to miss the Meet Record by just a tenth. He also rocked some fast relay splits, tying Albert Gwo’s Meet Record from 2015 with a 19.90 leadoff on the 200 free relay.

A handful of other individual records went down, including the women’s 100 fly record, as Gelndora’s Alexis Margett set a new Meet Record of 52.74. Foothill’s Calvin David set a new Meet Record of 4:21.66 in the 500 free after a thrilling battle with Palo Alto’s Andrew Liang (4:21.89). Teammate Jonah Cooper also downed a Meet Record, as he touched in 47.34 to win the 100 back.

After setting the 500 free Meet Record in prelims, Granada’s Miranda Heckman was successful in sweeping the middle distance freestyles. Though she didn’t match her record from prelims, Heckman still wound up on top of the podium with her 4:45.28 in the 500 free final. She also won the 200 free earlier in the session, lowering her time from prelims to win it in 1:47.21.

Country Day’s Amalie Fackenthal was just off her own Meet Record (22.45) from prelims, but still managed to get the gold and beat 2016 champ Elise Garcia in the 50 free. She rushed to the wall in 22.56, while Garcia touched in 22.68 for the silver. Fackenthal then completed the sprint sweep in the 100 free, turning in a 49.21 to out-touch Menlo Atherton’s Izzi Henig (49.25).

Arcadia’s Tenny Chong also picked up a sprint sweep on the men’s side. Chong put up a winning time of 20.29 in the 50 free, just out-touching last season’s silver medalist Christian Hockenbury of Mater Dei. He then went on to win the 100 free in a speedy 44.24.

Additional Event Winners:

*= CIF State Meet Record

  • Women’s 200 Medley Relay- Ventura (Laughlin, Harrison, Clark, Ayala), 1:41.77*
  • Men’s 200 Medley Relay- Oak Ridge (B. Mefford, Dillard, C. Mefford, Reeve), 1:30.08*
  • Women’s 200 IM- Chloe Clark, Granite Bay, 1:58.33
  • Men’s 200 IM- Alex Liang, Palo Alto, 1:46.68
  • Women’s 200 Free Relay- Santa Margarita (Degn, Odgers, Hoffman, Delgado), 1:32.99*
  • Men’s 200 Free Relay- Oak Ridge (B. Mefford, McCormick, Reeve, Kassianenko), 1:22.74*
  • Women’s 100 Back- Tea Laughlin, Ventura, 53.14
  • Women’s 100 Breast- Grace Zhao, Palo Alto, 1:00.66
  • Men’s 100 Breast- Andrew Britton, Joseph A. Gregori, 54.94
  • Women’s 400 Free Relay- Rio Americano (Nabeta, Menzmer, Kinsey, Reuter), 3:22.97
  • Men’s 400 Free Relay-

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David Howard
7 years ago

Danville…east bay. Not to be confused with Monta Vista in the peninsula

pauld
7 years ago

500 Free winner was Calvin David ( not Davis)

JOEY
7 years ago

Rooney record in 100FR from 2016 is :43.44 (lead off leg of the 4x100FR Realy in prelims). The time swam by Sancov today in Finals, also as a lead off leg of the 4x100FR Relay, but in finals, was :43.46 ( +.02 secs slower relative to Rooney’s record). Rooney is still the record holder! Check the archives.

Reply to  JOEY
7 years ago

Joey- all of your comments were received, as were your tweets. Since that time was done in prelims, it had been accidentally overlooked by CIF when they listed their records. I have updated the article accordingly. Please remember that some of us are on the east coast, so it may take awhile for your comments to get approved if it’s late at night. This was not a personal issue. Thanks.

coachymccoachface
Reply to  JOEY
7 years ago

Ryan Murphy did it at the Olympics last summer

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Sad to see so many missing big names at that meet.
Put the Californian high school swimming season from September to November!
The best swimmers will swim against each other at the state championships.
Then US short course juniors, sectionals in December.
And then from January to August everybody can focus entirely on long course.

Hank
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

Bobo it will never happen. Fall is the Water polo season and most non elite club swimmers double or identify primarily as Water polo players and just swim because the Water polo coaches tell them to.

cynthia curran
Reply to  Hank
7 years ago

Many of the water polo players can out swim regular swimmers in sprints since they probably changed from age group swimming to water polo entering high school. There are lots of kids that don’t play water polo that just swim during the school year or do a summer league swimming.

cynthia curran
Reply to  cynthia curran
7 years ago

Christian Hockenbury flashed his speed one last time for Mater Dei. The USC-bound water polo player placed a narrow second in the 50 freestyle to Arcadia’s Tenny Chong (20.29), clocking a lifetime-best and school-record 20.36. The time ranks Hockenbury third in county history behind the legendary Michael Cavic (19.69) and Derya Buyukuncu (20.27).“I’m happy about that. I am a water polo player. This is a state championship meet,” said Hockenbury, who placed third in the 100 free (44.81) and helped his 200 free relay take sixth.
This is from the Orange County Register, proof that many water polo players are sprinters and probably swam age group before high school.

Dylab
Reply to  cynthia curran
7 years ago

It is true. Water polo players can usually put together a pretty good 50

Agility4fun
7 years ago

There is a Monta Vista HS in Cupertino, a Monte Vista HS in Danville and a Monte Vista HS east is San Diego.

Uberfanq
7 years ago

Cal is gonna be so good next year

2Fat4Speed
Reply to  Uberfanq
7 years ago

They are good every year….

cynthia curran
7 years ago

I found out that Monte-Vista is in Spring Valley in the San Diego area.

CraigH
Reply to  cynthia curran
7 years ago

I thought Monte Vista was in the Bay Area?

cynthia curran
Reply to  CraigH
7 years ago

Yeah, it is, I made a mistake with spelling on google.

cynthia curran
Reply to  cynthia curran
7 years ago

Sorry, its in Daneville up north.near contra costa.

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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