Villa Park Girls, Costa Mesa Boys Win CIF-Southern Sectional Division 2 Titles

2024 CIF-SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION 2 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• May 2-4, 2024 (swimming)
• Mt. San Antonio College – Walnut, California
• SCY (25 yards)
• Meet Central
• PDF Results
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2024 CIF-SS Division 2”

The 2024 CIF-Southern Section Division 2 Championships were held at Mt. San Antonio College on Friday, May 4th. The Villa Park girls and Costa Mesa boys claimed dominant team victories, as both high schools won by nearly 50 points.

Girls’ Recap

Villa Park was led by senior Allison Mann and sophomore Lucy Flynn, who both scored 44 individual points. Mann was the only swimmer sub-23 in the girls’ 50 free, swimming 22.96 in the prelims for a new personal best. She held her top slot for finals with a near identical time of 23.03. She later added a 2nd win in the 100 free, where she hit the wall in 49.77, which represented her first time breaking 50 seconds. Mann is committed to swim at San Diego State University in the fall.

Flynn also won two events, with the first coming in the 200 IM. She put her hand on the wall in a big best time of 2:02.40 to win by over 2 seconds. She was especially strong on the breaststroke leg, where she split a swift 34.53. She opened in 27.04 on the butterfly split before hitting 32.34 on backstroke and 28.49 on free.

The 500 free was a much tougher task for the sophomore, who was in a tight battle with freshman teammate Chloe Teger the whole way. Flynn ultimately got the better of her younger teammate by 0.23 at the touch, winning in 4:52.31 to Teger’s 4:52.54. It was a best time for both swimmers who combined a whopping 41 points for Villa Park in this single race.

Mann and Flynn would later help Villa Park to victory in the 400 free relay. Mann anchored the team in 49.57 after Flynn led-off in a personal best of 52.63. 500 free runner-up Teger (54.19) and Makena De La0 (55.46) rounded out the victorious quartet. The same four helped Villa Park to 2nd in the 200 free relay, where they finished less than a second behind Ventura in 1:38.43. Ventura’s team, who recorded a time of 1:37.49, was comprised of Emily Gonzalez (25.23), Juliet Lazowski (25.15), Sarah Beckman (24.41), and Charlie Woo-Bloxberg (22.70).

Ventura junior Sarah Beckman staked her claim on two individual victories, as she won the 200 free (1:49.01) and 100 fly (53.62) events. The Harvard commit notched personal best times in both events, and while she’s been sub-1:50 in the 200 free before, it was her first time breaking :54 in the 100 fly.

In the 100 back, West Torrance senior Mikaela Maemura (55.54) glided into the wall just 0.13 ahead of Newbury Park senior Megan Wang (55.67). The duo cleared the rest of the field by about 2.5 seconds. Cerritos junior Clemence Choy put on a show in the 100 breast with a 1:02.72 winning effort. Choy won the race by nearly two seconds and opened through the first 50 in the only sub-30 split.

Mark Keppel opened the session with a huge margin of victory in the 200 medley relay. Their foursome of Nadia Lui (27.41), Jessica Chu (29.93), Jasmine Phuong (24.49), and Angelina Pang (24.50) touched in 1:46.33 to win by 3.08 seconds.

Girls’ Final Scores:

1. Villa Park – 226 points
2. Mark Keppel – 181 points
3. Ventura – 154 points
4. Glendora – 152 points
5. Martin Luther King – 133 points

Boys’ Recap

The boys from Costa Mesa High School were led by just three individual scorers: Avrum Xagorarakis (36 points), Kaua Mota (36 points), and Luke De La Jara (22 points). Xagorarakis touched the wall 1st in the 200 free (1:40.26) in addition to placing 7th in the 100 fly (50.15). His 200 free swim was a new career best while he’s been as quick as 49.30 in the 100-yard fly. Laguna Hills’ Lucas McKee scored gold in the 100 fly in 49.40, a new lifetime best for the senior.

Mota’s highest finish came in the 100 breast, where he placed 2nd behind Murrieta Mesa senior Ty Schneider. Schneider stopped the clock in 54.89 for the win after hitting a slightly quicker time of 54.76 during prelims. Mota, also a senior, punched an effort of 56.56 to obliterate his previous career standard of 58.03.

Ruben Ayala junior Daniel Benson swept the sprint free races with times of 20.71 and 45.40, respectively. He was the only athlete to swim under 21 seconds in the 50 free (in addition to being the only sub-46 100 freestyler). Both of his performances checked-in as his fastest ever times, which bodes well as he heads into his final season in the CIF next year. He was the only boy to win more than one individual event at this meet.

Rowland freshman Kyle Tsuei (50.25) led a pair of sub-51 clockings in the 100 back. He tore through the first 50 in a quick 24.22 before closing in 26.03 over the final 50-yards. Aneesh Veeravatnam, a junior at Royal, split 24.40/26.27 en route to posting a runner-up swim of 50.67. The time from both athletes check-in as new personal records.

Other individual event winners on the day included Cerritos freshman Anthony Dornoff (200 IM – 1:48.35) and Villa Park sophomore Jay Hickman (500 free – 4:31.95). It was a substantial best for Dornoff in the 200 IM, who chopped 1.01 off his previous best of 1:49.36 from prelims. Hickman’s final time was not his fastest-ever, but he did hit a personal record of 4:30.94 to qualify 1st during prelims.

Three different teams were able to win a relay event:

• Rowland’s squad of Kyle Tsuei (23.35), Kyle Cao (27.11), Ethan Chen (23.98), and Anthony Zhang (20.64) combined to post a winning time of 1:35.08 in the 200 medley relay.
• Kevin Zheng (21.79), Ben Trull (21.39), Arthur Lin (21.66), and Daniel Benson (20.29) teamed up to win the 200 free relay for Ruben Ayala. They finished in a cumulative time of 1:25.13 to win by 1.23 seconds.
• Oxford Academy (3:09.86) faced tough competition from Costa Mesa (3:09.88) and Chino Hills (3:10.20) in the 400 free relay, but edged out a win by just 0.02. Their line-up included Nathan Lee (47.16), Hunter Hua (47.70), Sean Quintero-Guan (48.57), and Matthew Lee (46.43).

Boys’ Final Scores:

1. Costa Mesa – 180 points
2. Ruben Ayala – 132 points
3. Rowland – 129 points
4. Irvine – 119.5 points
5. Oxford Academy – 119 points