The Paly swim teams won a crucial meet against Gunn on Friday as all four JV and varsity teams battled their way to victory.
The varsity boys won 101-80, while the varsity girls won 102-84. Paly now reigns undefeated with a 4-0 league record, despite tenacious opposition from Gunn, poor weather, and the disadvantage of not having a single home meet throughout the season.
After being neck-and-neck with Gunn the entire meet, the varsity boys and girls pulled ahead after the 500-yard freestyle and secured victories, according to head coach Danny Dye.
“It was a close meet,” Dye said. “The 200 yard freestyle relay is where we pulled ahead. Both teams placed 1-3 in that. They managed not to lose any points in the backstroke and pulled ahead in the breaststroke. Then we went 1-3 again in the 400 free relay. So it really came down to the last four events.”
After the Paly teams swam mediocre times the entire meet, Jeremy Goldstein stopped the hemorrhaging with a 4:57.02 500-yard freestyle for the boys. Paly continued to improve as Peter Lo swam a 1:03.79 100-yard breaststroke for the boys and Tanya Wilcox put up a time of 1:14.25 for the girls. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Becky Wenzlau, Phoebe Champion, Erica Westly, and Liv Jensen put up a time of 3:48.01 for the girls, while the boys had a time of 3:25.93 from Jeremy Goldstein, Robbie Nakamura, Edward Morrison, and Leland Takamine.
For the varsity girls, the meet was much closer than expected as Gunn put up stiff competition. The varsity girls were down after the first two events, the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle, though they managed to rally together and wrest their way back into the competition. Even after Liv Jensen won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 55:51, the meet was still up for the taking.
“The meet is pretty close for the girls,” varsity captain senior Remy Champion said at the time. “It’s very surprising, but we have a lot of good races to go, and I’m sure we’ll do well.”
The boys, even with tough resistance from Gunn, managed to maintain a slight lead throughout most of the competition. Varsity boys captain senior Alec Goldfield reflected on the meet after the victory.
“It was a good meet, a competitive meet all the way through,” Goldfield said. “Considering the bad conditions during the meet, we swam well. Gunn gave big challenges to our team. I feel we really stepped up to it, and we were able to come through with a big win.”
The junior varsity boys had a close meet with a 95-90 victory. This meet was their first win against Gunn in three years. JV boys coach Jon Barnea was very pleased with the result.
“The boys did everything I asked them to do,” Barnea said. “They swam hard and put all their heart into it. The guys stepped up with a great swim. Its what the JV boys are all about.”
Dye had high praise for all of Paly’s teams. “When they realized the meet was on the line, they pulled it together,” Dye said. “Gunn swam very well. In the end, our hard training paid off. Our teams trained hard and got themselves geared up. This meet was against a tough team and all four of our teams won. I’m ecstatic.”
Despite losing, Gunn head coach Mark Hernandez was satisfied with his team’s performance and exemplified the friendly rivalry between the two teams.
“A lot of the guys on the two teams know each other and grew up together,” Hernandez said. “It’s a nice rivalry. I’m very proud of our guys. The boys and girls competed every event and did very well. You can’t get too wrapped up in wins and losses.”
The Paly swimmers will face Los Altos at 3:00 p.m. this Friday at Los Altos.