It’s not often a team can win a pair of titles within four days of each other but that’s exactly what the Palo Alto girls swimming team did, emphasizing the clinching of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division dual-meet season title on Wednesday, with a title at the Section Challenge on Saturday at Sacred Heart Prep.
The Vikings swam against teams like San Ramon Valley, Leland and the host Gators. They compiled 272 points, 40 better than second-place Leland.
San Ramon Valley won the boys title with 268 points, followed by Leland with 247. Sacred Heart Prep placed third (182), followed by the Vikings (171).
Zoe Lusk, perhaps Paly’s most versatile swimmer, won the 200 free and 100 back and then swam with Grace Zhao to help the Vikings win both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.
Palo Alto will likely be favored to make it a trifecta next week at the league finals on Friday.
No meet records were set at the Challenge but what Paly’s title shows is the team’s general versatility and depth. Zhao, for example, did not swim her signature event, the 100 breast.
Zhao raced in one event and it was highly competitive, finishing second in the 200 IM by .02 seconds to Leland’s Hannah Womer.
The meet was more about scoring points than swimming fast times and Lusk earned 32 on her own and contributed to another 64 on the relays.
Amy Wu and Peyton Wang joined Lusk and Zhao to complete the winning medley relay while Mary Wilkinson and Claire Lin joined the fun on the free relay.
Lusk led a 31-point effort in the 200 free as Wilkinson and Mary Fetter also scored for the Vikings.
Sacred Heart Prep also had three scorers in the event. Corinne Charlton, Megan Ross and Claire Kerrigan combined for 20 points, more than Leland or Los Gatos scored in the event.
SH Prep’s Gaby Ma also swam a strong individual medley in finishing fourth.
Lin, Wang and Wu finished 2-3-4 in the 50 free, picking up another 36 points.
San Ramon Valley swept the top three spots in the 100 free but Wang and Kate Milne finished fourth and fifth.
Ashley Guo, who was third, joined Lusk in the 100 back to give the Vikings a heavy presence. SHP’s Emily Howard placed fourth.
Ma had the top finish among locals, finishing third, in the 100 breast, though Paly still scored in the event thanks to Haley Chalmers sixth-place finish.
On the boys side, Palo Alto’s Alex Liang won the 200 IM and Justin Cheok out-touched SHP’s Walker Semour by .10 seconds to win the 100 breast. Austin Cheok swam to a fourth-place showing.
Sacred Heart Prep scored big in the 500 free with CJ Box winning and Jackson Enright placing second and Jackson Clevenger and Will Riley adding another combined 12 points. Marcus Hong was third for Palo Alto.
Paly’s Will Parmeter, Thibault Collignon, Liang and Alex Beaudry swam a strong 200 free relay to finish second.
Boys lacrosse
Tommy Barnds scored his only goal in the second overtime and Sacred Heart Prep downed host Bellarmine 10-9 in a nonleague boys lacrosse game Saturday.
Cody Weibe recorded nine saves for the Gators, who have won six of their past seven matches.
Sacred Heart Prep (10-5) hosts Mitty in another nonleague game at 4 p.m Tuesday. The Gators improved to 2-2 in one-goal games.
Jack Crockett added a pair of goals and a couple of assists. Kevin Tinsley added a team-high three goals and an assist, Wilson Weisel scored twice and Teddy Vought had a goal and two assists.
Joe Sonsini scored a goal and recorded an assist for the defending PAL champion Gators.
Girls lacrosse
Gunn’s title hopes were dealt a severe setback Friday as host Mountain View knocked off the Titans 10-4 in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League contest.
The good news is Gunn (12-3, 10-2) has four games remaining to play, including home matche with Los Gatos (11-1, 11-1) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. and Palo Alto (10-5, 10-2) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Win out and the Titans win the title because they would hold the tie-breaker with the Wildcats.
Mountain View (9-5, 8-4) was coming off a two-point loss to Los Gatos. The Spartans have also lost by two to Palo Alto. Gunn handed Mountain View its worst loss of the season 11-3 on March 10. The Spartans took revenge.
Four different Titans scored against Mountain View: Grace Williams, Laurel Comiter, Becca Chapman and Jenilee Chen.
Andrea Garcia-Milla recorded a pair of assists and Mikaela Wayne had six saves.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports