The Paly girls capped off an undefeated season with a first place finish at this year’s Central Coast Section meet, held at Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center, while the boys finished in fourth.

The girls destroyed the competition as usual this meet, finishing first with 226 points, beating their traditional CCS rivals, Archbishop Mitty, who scored 206 points. The boys failed in their quest to place second, due to a poor finish in the preliminary 4 x 50-yard freestyle relay. Varsity captain senior Jeremy Goldstein described the disappointing relay.

“We were in second [according to the team’s own calculations] until the 4 x 50 free relay,” Goldstein said. “The order was Eric [Vallone], Chan [Kim], Robbie [Nakamura], and Edward [Morrison]. The officials called up the relay, but nobody was there except for Robbie. So Robbie goes, swims his 50, gets back, then Chan gets there and jumps in four seconds later. Eric and Edward were in the warm-up pool, because they thought it wasn’t their heat. Jeff and Danny were very angry. But you move on, and looking back at it the relay was kind of funny.”

The CCS meet went much better for the girls as they had swimmers in nearly every event in the finals and broke two school records. Freshman Liv Jensen swam a 23.71 in the 50-yard freestyle, automatically qualifying for All-American and breaking the former 50-yard freestyle record of 24.18, set in 1998 by Haley Champion.

“The 50 free is my best event,” Jensen said. I was hopeful that I would break the school record. I didn’t know what it was until this morning, but I’m happy that I broke it.”

The girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay, juniors Becky Wenzlau and Phoebe Champion, senior Remy Champion, and Liv Jensen, came in with a time of 1:37.99, also making automatic All-American and shattering the previous Paly record of 1:40.10, set by Erin Reiland, Jessica Jackson, Andrea Clewley, and Courtney Lischke in 1995. The girls’ 400-yard freestyle relay, Wenzlau, Champion, Jensen, and senior Monika Friedman, came in second with a time of 3:33.16 and made automatic All-American.

The boys also put up some impressive swims, as junior Edward Morrison swam 1:43.25 in the 200-yard freestyle, coming in fifth place and making All-American consideration. Morrison also placed seventh in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.90, narrowly missing All-American consideration by half a second. Sophomore Peter Lo placed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 59.90, making All-American consideration. Lo also came in eighth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:59.69.

“I guess I did well in the 200 IM,” Lo said. “I think it was my personal best, though I could have gone a bit faster. I wanted a rose at the award ceremony but I think they only give them to the girls.”

According to former Paly head coach Jeff Peterson, the key to Paly’s success in CCS and in the year overall was the teams’ multitude of talented swimmers at all levels, not just a few brilliant swimmers.

“The meet is going very well,” Peterson said, during a break between events. “Our swimmers aren’t coming in first in any event, but because of our depth we are doing well.”

After the meet, Paly head coach Danny Dye reflected on the meet and the season.

“CCS went very well,” Dye said. “We all hurt from the relay in the preliminaries, but what I give the team credit for is that they didn’t lose faith. They swam hard all year. The boys came in fourth place, which is phenomenal. For the girls, I don’t know if I’ve seen a team that is so cohesive and hurdling any obstacle, and they won. I’m as proud of them as anything in my life. The only thing I regret is that I only got to have one year with the seniors this year.”