For the second straight year, Loyola High School finished second in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 boys’ swimming championships held May 9-12 at the Riverside Aquatics Center, the highest finish for any Catholic school in the four divisions of boys’ competition.
Cub junior Connor Lee (100 butterfly) and senior Mark McCrary (100 backstroke) recorded individual victories, and scored points in other individual and relay events to help Loyola accumulate 238 points, behind champion Northwood’s 282. Loyola was top-5 in all three relays including second in the 400 free.
Crespi finished sixth in team scoring (164 points), as senior Hayden Liu won the 200 individual medley (and was second in the 100 back), sophomore Zach Van Zandt won the 100 Freestyle (and was second in the 200 free), and both swam on Crespi’s winning 200 free relay team with seniors Jack Chen and Sergey Ternov.
Santa Margarita was eighth (157), led by junior Nicholas Leavell (fifth in diving), junior Noah Brune (third in the 500 free), senior AJ Rossman (third in the 100 backstroke), and the 200 medley relay team of Rossman, Jackson Odgers, Kevin Tu and Jacob Wright (fifth).In addition to the aforementioned swimmers, point-scorers in D-1 event finals (first through ninth places) included Loyola’s James Lee, Nicholas Turrill, Lachlan Bonesteel, Emmett Pernecky and Nolan Wang; Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks’ Dominic Margarino, Evan Yoo and Keane Alejandro; and Servite’s Christian Martinez (third in the 50 free), Christopher Canlas, Porter Bruce and Matt Kuehl.
Points also were awarded in consolation finals (tenth through 18th). Other team scores included Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks 13th (73 points), Servite 15th (60), Alemany 27th (22), Mater Dei 30th (18.5), St. Francis 36th (4) and J.Serra 37th (2).
Division 2
Second in 2017, Damien finished fifth in 2018 with 180 points, as Foothill repeated as champions with 249.
Spartan junior Preston Planells was third in the 100 backstroke, fourth in the 200 IM, and helped his team to third-place finishes in the 200 IM and 400 free relays. Seniors Ryan Terlip and Chris Hogan were fifth in the 50 free and 100 butterfly, respectively, and each swam on two finalist relay teams.
Other point-scorers in individual and/or relay events for Damien were junior James Luci, sophomores Robert Campbell and Michael Babaian, and freshman Marcos Santos.
Division 4
Led by senior James Torrez, La Salle accumulated 147 points to finish seventh behind Rowland’s winning 261. St. Anthony & Mary Star tied for 25th with 26 points each; Bishop Amat was 30th (18); and Bishop Montgomery 40th (2).
Torrez won the 100 butterfly in 50.27 (1.93 ahead of second), the 100 backstroke in 51.1 (3.53 ahead of second, though off his own 2017 meet record), and led off the winning 200 medley relay team, accompanied by junir Derek Chen and freshmen Andrew Lee and James Desjarlals. The same Lancer quartet earned second place in the 200 free relay.
Mary Star freshman Angel Gonzalez was a finalist in the 200 IM and 500 free, and St. Anthony senior Ian Padilla was eighth in the 100 and 200 freestyle. La Salle’s Chen was seventh in the 200 IM, and Bishop Amat’s Zachary Hesse and Bishop Montgomery’s Patrick Melia scored points for their teams.
