Palo Alto’s Lin brings home bronze from state diving meet

Palo Alto High junior Mimi Lin capped a stellar diving season by finishing third in the first-ever CIF State Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex at Clovis West High.

Lin scored 489.85 points for her 11 dives, just missing second place as Mikaela Lujan of Nevada Union tallied 492.85. Olivia Rosendahl of Immaculate (Southern Section) won the first-ever state title in diving with 517.50 points.

Lin came into the state finals after winning her first Central Coast Section crown last Friday with 482.60 points in Santa Clara. Prior to that, Lin won her third straight SCVAL De Anza Division crown.

Menlo-Atherton sisters Talbott and Mia Paulsen finished seventh and 11th, respectively, in the state finale. Talbott scored 455.20 points and Mia had 439.30. Mia, a sophomore, was second at CCS (452.20) and Talbott, a senior, was third at the section finals with a 443.20 score.

The boys’ diving final will be Saturday morning with swim finals getting under way at 2:30 p.m.

Palo Alto sophomore Grace Zhao and Gunn senior Jenna Campbell will lead local swimmers into Saturday’s finals after both had solid performances Friday.

Zhao had the top qualifying times in both the 50 free (22.86) and 100 breast (1:02.09) in addition to leading off the 200 free relay that qualified third in 1:35.73. All three times were automatic All-American clockings.

The 50 free was a personal best while the 100 breast saw Zhao beat Stanford recruit Ella Estin, who set a national private school record in the 200 IM last weekend. In the relay, Zhao helped teammates Kayleigh Svensson, Peyton Wang and Claire Lin. The Vikings’ 400 free relay team of Zhao, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Zoe Lusk and Lin qualified ninth in 3:30.21. All the swimmers are freshman or sophomores.

Meanwhile, Campbell came into the meet as the top qualifier in both the 200 free and 500 free and nearly lived up to both. She was No. 1 in the 200 free with a 1:47.85 and No. 3 in the 500 free in 4:51.41, both automatic All-American times — albeit slower than her winning times at the CCS Championships.

Campbell also led off Gunn’s 200 medley relay team that was 16th in 1:47.21 and led off the 200 free relay squad that finished 12th in 1:36.96. Nia Garner, Maria Wu and Sam Acker made up the medley relay with Kiley Lin replacing Wu on the 200 relay.

In other girls events, Castilleja freshman Izzi Henig was the No. 6 qualifier in the 100 free in 50.83. Sacred Heart Prep was 10th in the 200 free relay with the team of Kathryn Bower, Kayla Holman, Matte Snow and Corinne Charlton clocking 1:36.75. The Gators’ 400 free relay squad, which won the CCS title, was disqualified by an early takeoff by one of their swimmers.

For the boys, Paly sophomore Alex Liang reached the finals in the 200 IM and 400 free relay and Gunn sophomore Michael Lincoln made the finals of the 500 free.

Liang was fifth in the 200 IM in 1:50.76, an automatic All-American time, and anchored the Vikings’ 400 free relay team to third in 3:06.01. Juniors Daniel Sing, Andrew Cho and senior Winston Wang rounded out the squad.

Lincoln swam a lifetime best of 4:33.44 to qualify eighth while relegating junior teammate Daichi Matsuda to ninth with a 4:33.51 clocking.

Paly’s 200 medley relay team of Cho, Robert Cheng, Liang and Wang was ninth in 1:34.78 with Gunn 12th in 1:35.48. The Titans came back in the 200 free relay team to finish 11th with the team of Joao Ama, Trent Tosky, Lincoln and Christian Znidarsic clocking a school record of 1:26.21. That erased a school mark that had stood since 1999.

Ama was 13th in the 50 free in 21.24 with CCS champ Albert Gwo of Los Altos the No. 1 qualifier in a personal best of 20.08.

Paly’s Liang was 10th in the 100 fly in 49.15 with Gunn’s Matsuda 15th in 49.70. Gunn’s 400 free relay team was disqualified due to a false start.

Paly freshman Sofia Sigrist and the boys’ 200 free relay team both missed the consolation finals by placing 19th, Sigrist in the girls’ 500.