All four Paly swim teams are the 2005 league champions despite mixed results at the league finals on Friday at Saratoga.

The Paly girls dominated the meet, with the varsity girls winning with an overwhelming total of 498 points, compared with the nearest competition, Gunn, who scored 357 points. The junior varsity girls also placed first far ahead of the competition, with 447.5 points to Gunn’s 361. The Paly boys’ teams, however, did not fare so well at the meet. The varsity boys came in second with a score of 432 points, while Gunn came in first at 483.5 points and Monta Vista placed third with 390.5 points. The JV boys narrowly lost to Gunn, 469 to 446, while placing ahead of Monta Vista, which scored 340 points.

Despite the boys’ loss to Gunn at league finals, the boys still finished first overall in the league due to their undefeated record, whereas Gunn had suffered two losses during the season, one to Paly and another to Monta Vista. Paly head coach Danny Dye was pleased with how leagues turned out.

“I’m extremely proud of them [all four teams],” Dye said. “They worked hard all year, and they swam their hearts out. I’ve never been prouder as a coach in my life. We have very talented people on the teams, with lots of personal bests coming from both the boys and the girls at the meet.”

The Paly varsity girls broke two Santa Clara Valley Athletic League records at the meet. The 400-yard freestyle relay, swam by juniors Becky Wenzlau and Phoebe Champion, senior Monika Friedman, and freshman Liv Jensen, with a time of 3:37.63, demolished the previous SCVAL record of 3:38.08, set in 1997, and made All-American consideration. Wenzlau, junior Donna Kremer, P. Champion, and Jensen also made All-American consideration and broke the SCVAL 200-yard freestyle relay record with a time of 1:40.37, crushing the former record of 1:40.96, set in 2004 by Mountain View.

The JV boys also had several important accomplishments despite the absence of coach Jon Barnea. Freshman Geng Wang, sophomores Timmo Davis and michael Nguyen, and junior Stuart Mayo, of the JV boys’ 4 x 100 freestyle relay swam a time of 3:33.78, shattering the previous SCVAL record, set by Gunn in 2004, of 3:39.08, by nearly six seconds. Nguyen also qualified for CCS in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.82.

“We’re doing okay,” Nguyen said. “Everybody is going their best times, which is what we planned. Gunn is also doing very well though. We were ranked higher, but because of the format at leagues [finals] is different [than the dual meets, with four swimmers from each school instead of three per event], the results can vary.”

The varsity boys swam well at the meet, but the other teams managed to beat Paly in several events. In the 200-yard individual medley, Gunn junior Matthew Prior defeated Paly sophomore Peter Lo by over two seconds, with a time of 1:58.72 and 2:00.91, respectively. In the 200-yard medley relay, sophomore Tyler Thompson, Lo, senior Alec Goldfield, and junior Chan Kim swam a time of 1:42.16, but were barely touched out by Gunn’s relay, which swam 1:42.10.

‘We lost by .06 seconds,” Kim said. “I am really disappointed. We could have easily beaten Gunn. The guy I raced did 21.9, but I did 22.5. If I had extended my arm instead of taking another short stroke, I could have won.” Kim proceeded to place 10th in the 50-yard freestyle, where he was seeded 11th, with a time of 23.02.

Despite several losses, the varsity boys had their share of successes. In the 200-yard freestyle, junior Edward Morrison swam a 1:44.47, defeating Los Altos swimmer Connor McColl by a full second, who swam 1:45.82.

The JV girls were enthusiastic and consistently won events throughout the meet. Freshmen Jenny Whyte and Amanda Wong, junior Charlotte Chiang, and senior Taylor Whitfield won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:07.37, beating the nearest competition, Los Altos, which swam 2:08.81. In the 100-yard freestyle, sophomore Aly Mackenzie and freshman Liz Abbott finished one-two as Mackenzie swam 59.82, while Abbot tucked in with a time of 1:00.91. JV Girls’ coach Aileen Delaney reflected on the season.

“I’m excited, but mainly happy for the girls,” Delaney said. “It was a good meet, and a good season. The girls swam well. A lot of the girls have a lot of room for improvement, and in a year or two a lot will be on varsity. None of the girls made CCS, but they did well, and I’m just happy for them.”

Even though they did not win the meet, the JV boys’ team was also satisfied with the outcome.

“We had a JV swimmer, Michael Nguyen in the breast, qualify for CCS,” JV captain junior David Protter said. “The JV boys also set a new record for SCVAL in the 4 x 100 free. I am very happy with the meet. We might not have won the meet, but we’re league champions, so we’re happy.”

The varsity boys were ambivalent with the result. Varsity captain Alec Goldfield weighed in on the meet.

“The boys haven’t finished tapering,” Goldfield said. “You feel really good at the end of taper. You normally taper for two weeks, but we’ve gone for less than a week. We’re swimming well, but not as we could be, not to take anything away from Gunn, because they swam very well today.”

The Paly swimmers that qualified for CCS will participate in the CCS preliminaries at 1 p.m. on Friday at Avery Aquatics Center at Stanford Campus, and finals will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Avery Aquatics Center.