Swimming: CV Dominates to Win 19th Straight League Title

Winning 19 consecutive Pacific League titles is impressive.

But the domination the Crescenta Valley boys swim team displayed in the Pacific League finals Thursday at the Burbank High School pool was probably the most impressive thing about the Falcons.

The Falcons set league records in a number of events and won the boys’ competition over second-place Arcadia by more than 200 points as CV had 548 and Arcadia had 335. Pasadena finished fifth with 148 points.

CV also won the girls’ title, winning with 538 points. Arcadia was second with 365 and Pasadena was third with 268.5.

“One of the goals the boys set was to be the best Pacific League team ever,” CV coach Jan Sakonju said. “They broke seven records and they had the potential to break nine, but they decided to let a teammate to attempt to qualify for CIF. They came to me with that option. It showed me a lot of maturity.”

Junior Louis Wojciechowski set the new league record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 39.55 seconds and the 100 butterfly (49.97).  He was also part of the 200 free relay that set a league record (1:26.19).  His 400 free relay team finished less than half a second short of the league record the Falcons set in 2009, winning easily in 3:12.46.

Despite all of the success, the Falcon star said he expects to be ready to swim faster next week for the CIF Division II preliminaries and finals.

“We started tapering last week,” Wojciechowski said. “We fully start tapering this week. My 200 free wasn’t my best time. I was just trying to under 1:40 for the record.”

The Falcons also got a record day from sophomore Young Tae Seo. Seo broke his own meet record in winning the 500 freestyle (4:30.61) and also set a meet record in winning the 100 breaststroke (58.19).

“I felt tired,” Seo said. “I tried to go faster, but I wasn’t happy with the times.”

Seo did say he was happy with his 21.4 split on the 200 free relay.

Crescenta Valley sophomore Harrison Thai also had a fantastic day.

Thai shattered the previous league record in the 200 individual medley by more than two seconds as he won in 1:51.92. He then broke his own league record in the 100 backstroke by more than a second, winning in 51.16.

Josh Chi was a double winner in taking the 50 and 100 freestyle races in CIF automatic qualifying times of 21.94 and 48.07, respectively.

The Arcadia girls 200 freestyle relay team was the only other team to set a meet record.

The team of Irene Tran, Emily Chow, Brittany Burk and Samantha Winthein broke the previous Apache record by more than a second to win in 1:42.54, well under the 1:45.0 automatic qualification standard for CIF competition.

“We got some great swims from kids at all levels,” Arcadia coach Janice Clark said. “I think the most exciting was in the 200 free relay. That got us an automatic time for CIF.”

Arcadia got a very close victory to start the meet as the 200 medley relay won in 1:55.98, just one hundredth of a second ahead of Pasadena, which was second in 1:55.99. Both were just under the CIF automatic qualifying standard of 1:56.0.

CV was third in 1:57.49.

Pasadena got stellar performances from the Lepresant sisters.

Caroline Lepresent, a junior, won the 200 free (1:57.56) and the 500 free (5:10.36). Both are CIF automatic qualifying times.

Victoria Lepresent, a sophomore, took the 100 backstroke (1:00.72) and the 200 individual medley (2:10.66). Both are also automatic CIF qualifying marks.

“In the 200 free I was racing one of my good friends, (Arcadia’s) Emily Chow,” Caroline Lepresent said. “We pushed each other and try not to stress out before races.”

Crescenta Valley freshman Iva Icheva was the top performer on the girls’ team.

She won the 50 free (24.85) and was second in the 100 backstroke (1:01.06). Both are CIF automatic qualifying times.