The Paly swimmers outmatched Saratoga on Thursday at Saratoga as all four Viking teams defeated their competition.
Paly’s varsity teams won solid victories, with the varsity girls winning, 112-61, and the varsity boys winning, 114-56. The JV teams did even better as the JV girls won, 123-66, and the JV boys dominated by an impressive 92 points, 130-38. Both the JV and varsity boys and girls now reign undefeated in leagues with 5-0 records.
"Honestly, the people I saw stepping up were some of the JV boys," Viking head coach Danny Dye said. "They really stepped it up and were swimming well. I look forward to a very fast league and CCS situation."
The JV boys placed first in every event. Their most impressive feat of the day came in the 500-yard freestyle with sophomores Timmo Davis and Brian Huang tying for first place. Davis came out on top with a time of 5:13.34, defeating the nearest Saratoga swimmer by over 41 seconds. JV boys’ coach Jon Barnea expected the good results.
"I think we have good prospects for winning," Barnea said before the meet. "The sun is shining and the guys had a good week at practice. The guys are ready to swim real fast."
Sophomore Peter Lo of the varsity boys crushed the Saratoga opposition by nearly 10 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.88. The varsity girls placed first, second and third in the 50-yard freestyle, with freshman Liv Jensen defeating the nearest Saratoga swimmer by four seconds with a time of 24.16. The JV girls dominated the 200-yard freestyle as freshman Jenny Whyte swam a time of 2:15.87, owning the closest Saratoga swimmer by 17 seconds.
Varsity boys’ swimmer junior Dan Griffin accurately predicted the outcome of the meet.
"I know I’m going to do well," Griffin said. "I know the others are also going to do well. We’re going to destroy them."
The meet was characterized by people swimming their "off" events, as the Paly coaches experimented with different line-ups.
"This meet allowed us to switch people around and see what options we have at leagues," Dye said. "At dual meets there are three swimmers [per event] per team, but at leagues there are four so I want to see what kinds of times people will have in the leagues line up."
Saratoga coach Mark Taliaferro was cautiously optimistic at the beginning of the meet, though he was satisfied with the outcome of the meet.
"We had some good individual swims and great weather," Taliaferro said. "For coming off of a spring break week, it was a good meet."
The Paly girls also performed well in the Menlo relays on Saturday, with the varsity girls placing first overall and the JV girls placing third overall.
The Paly teams have their next meet against Mountain View at 3 p.m. this Thursday at Mountain View.