Swim practice for local high school teams doesn’t begin until next month, but Sacred Heart Prep senior Ally Howe already is ahead of the game after keeping busy on the Grand Prix circuit.
Howe swam this past weekend at the Arena Grand Prix at Austin long-course meet at the University of Texas. She placed among the top nine in four events in addition to swimming on a relay.
Howe, who has committed to Stanford for next fall and swims for Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, opened by winning the B final (ninth overall) in the women’s 100-meter fly. Her time of 1:00.75 would have gotten her fifth in the A final.
She also swam on PASA’s fifth-place 400 free relay team that included Karlee Bispo, Menlo-Atherton’s Kindle Van Linge and Paly’s Jayna Wittenbrink.
On Saturday, Howe was fifth in the 200 back (2:16.14) while on Sunday she finished sixth in the 200 fly in 2:15.05 and sixth in the 100 back (1:04.38).
PASA swimmers came up with three runner-up finishes as Stanford grad Eugene Godsoe was second in the men’s 100 fly (53.69), Cardinal grad BJ Johnson was second in the 200 breast (2:13.19) and Bispo was second in the 200 IM (2:16.03).
The PASA men’s 400 free relay B team of Alex Coville, Brandon Fischer, Bobby Bollier and Godsode also was runner-up in 3:28.13.
Equally busy was PASA’s Curtis Ogren from Menlo Park and St. Francis High. He was fifth in the 400 IM (4:25.46) and seventh in the 200 back (2:04.43) on Saturday before taking fourth in the 200 IM on Sunday in 2:05.36.
Bollier, another Stanford grad who has been an assistant swim coach at M-A, was fourth in the 200 fly (1:59.06) and sixth in the 100 fly (54.44) while teammate Jason Dunford grabbed third in the 100 fly (53.73).
The meet featured a large number of athletes from the 2012 London Olympics.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports