Last Wednesday and Friday the Paly swimmers headed up to Los Altos high school in high spirits of winning the SCVAL championships. In the qualifying rounds, Gunn, Homestead, Los Altos, Monta Vista, Saratoga, Mountain View, and Palo Alto were present, competing to qualify for the final round which was held on Friday.

"It needs to be a total team effort," Paly coach Jeff Peterson said before the meet. "Even though it is just the trials today we need to give it our full effort in order to advance to the championships on Friday."

The top six teams in each event moved on to swim on Friday and to compete for the top positions. No points were awarded during these events and all heats are solely for qualifying.

"Both the boys’ and girls’ Paly varsity have been swimming well. It’s supposed to be a close meet and everyone is going to need to step it up," Peterson said. "High expectations have been put on us because we are the dual meet champions. There are seven teams here at the meet and we hope to be in the top two, and hopefully finish first."

The Paly Vikes placed second in the championships behind cross-town rival Gunn in the SCVAL De Anza Division championships. The Palo Alto boy swimmers beat Gunn 402 ½ to 400 not including the divers, meaning that the swimmers actually would have achieved first place if diving scores were not included in the overall score. In the end Paly finished with 415 1/2 points while Gunn got 453.

Gunn’s boy divers contributed to their team’s victory when seniors Calvin Calhoun and Chris Taylor earned a total of 37 points, getting first and second place on the 1-meter board. The rest of the divers combined for 16 points for a grand total of 53 points from diving alone.

In swimming, the Paly boys won three events with the outstanding efforts of freshman Peter Lo and senior Lee Anderson. In the 200 medley relay, Peter Lo got a season best 1:59.52 while Lee Anderson got his season best 22.22 in the 50 free. Paly also got first in the 200-medley relay thanks to Peter Lo, Alec Goldfield, and Kalani Leifer.

Gunn had a lot of confidence in its swimmers from the beginning, knowing that it and Paly were the top two teams in the league. "We’re all pretty confident that we will beat Paly," Gunn swimmer Arjan Ligtenberg, said. "I know my teammates and I are going to at least win the boys division."

Despite the valiant effort of the Paly boy swimmers, it was not enough to keep them ahead of Gunn and into first place even though Gunn only placed first in one event during the entire tournament. The Gunn swimmers and divers purely got the job done but barely beat Paly.

The girls’ side of the championships was an entirely different story. The girls from Paly stomped on the Titans, scoring 469 points, while Gunn fell short 158 points, finishing with 311.

"I’m very proud of how our girls are swimming. They’re all giving it their best and are obviously doing a good job given that we are ahead," Peterson said of Paly’s effort. "I was pretty confident that the girls would win from the beginning."

Paly impressively placed first and second in the 100 free with swims by Junior Remy Champion and Sophomore Becky Wenzlau. Wenzlau also placed second in the 50 free behind Brooke Bishop from Mountain View, getting a time of 25.28. Junior Brittany Webster placed fourth in the same event clocking an impressive 57.28.

Junior Monika Friedman placed first in the 200 free and the 500 free. In both events she swam her season’s best times, getting 1:55.56 and 5:03.72 respectively. Also, great times by Senior Jennie Smith also contributed, claiming fourth place in the 200 free with a time of 2:01.47.

"I’m happy with our win and everyone swam very fast which contributed to our dominating victory," Webster said. "It was unfortunate about our disqualification in the 400 free relay, but regardless it was a good win."