Wrapping up the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League season, the Palo Alto High School boys’ swim team took second place behind Monta Vista High School, 354-414, on Thursday and Friday, breaking its six-year league championship-win streak.
The Vikings expected to continue its streak, but a disqualification during the 200-yard medley relay precluded their ability to capture the league title.
“It was disappointing, especially being the beginning of the meet,” head coach Danny Dye said. “I think it took a little bit of wind out of their sail. But they have CCS coming up and they are just going to have to keep on going.”
The Vikings were head to head with Monta Vista High School throughout the entire relay. They touched the wall before Monta Vista and would have earned second place, but an early takeoff led to Paly’s disqualification.
Although the disqualification took the Vikings by surprise, they still performed solidly overall.
Junior Arseniy Kotov won 17 points for the team as he took second place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.25 seconds.
Kotov also placed fourth in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:46.82 and dropped two seconds off of his preliminary time. In addition, junior D.J. Fotsch came in eighth in 1:54.56.
In the 200-yard individual medley, the Vikings placed four swimmers. Sophomore Byron Sanborn took second with 1:55.70, shaving nearly three seconds off of his preliminary time. Sophomores Charles Zhang and Rollin Lau as well as freshman Alex Francis took sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
Sanborn also shined in the 100-yard breaststroke, swimming to victory in 59.92 to beat Monta Vista by 27 milliseconds.
Sanborn said he was satisfied with his accomplishment.
“It felt great, I’ve been waiting to beat that guy for awhile,” Sanborn said.
As the 400-yard freestyle relay completed the boys’ meet, the last few seconds of that race were crucial. The Vikings were neck and neck with Saratoga High School and Los Gatos High School, finishing in third place with a time of 3:16.79. This finalized the Vikings’ second place overall standing in the meet.
Dye said he is confident the Vikings are ready for CCS and hopes to place in the top three, as they have performed well even without tapering. Tapering is the reduction of swimming just before a major meet.
“I think everybody swam very hard and trained very hard,” Dye said. “A lot of people even swam through this meet without tapering much, so I think we are very prepared for CCS.”
CCS preliminaries start at 2 p.m. next Friday, May 21 at the George F. Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara. CCS finals are at 2 p.m. on Saturday.