The Paly boys’ varsity swim team (9-0-1) will send more swimmers than expected to the Central Coast Section meet, thanks to terrific individual results during the team’s victory at the Santa Clara Athletic League-De Anza Division league championship meet.
The Vikings beat out the competition to score a total of 376 points. Saratoga High School finished in second place, with 361 points, and Los Gatos High School placed third, with 319 points. The Vikings beat Saratoga by a single point in the dual meet season, and tied with Los Gatos. The SCVAL-DAD league championships took place after school on Friday at Paly.
“They [the boys] did a great job today,” head coach Danny Dye said. “They had to swim a nearly perfect meet, and they held onto it today.”
Friday’s victory marks the fifth year in a row that the Vikings have claimed the title of SCVAL-DAD league champions.
“It was incredible,” senior co-captain Tim Wenzlau said. “It was always our goal [to win the league championship], and now it’s something we’ve accomplished. Everybody’s been swimming super fast. The size of our squad for CCS doubled just because of this meet.”
Many swimmers qualified for CCS in the preliminary races, and put the Vikings in a good position for finals on Friday.
“We set ourselves up well yesterday [Thursday], so we could go into finals ready to win,” freshman Byron Sanborn said.
Among the swimmers who qualified for CCS in the preliminary races were freshman Corso Rosati, sophomore DJ Fotsch, and junior Emerson Shiang. Rosati qualified for CCS in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 5 minutes, 6.62 seconds. Fotsch qualified for CCS in the 100-yard butterfly, with a time of 56.56 seconds. Shiang qualified for CCS in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.69 seconds. The time also qualified him for finals on Friday.
“It felt really good,” Shiang said. “It felt really good. It was fun being in a heat with Tim [Wenzlau]. I was proud to score some points for my team.”
Wenzlau placed second in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday, with the All-American time of 51.87 seconds. Wenzlau beat his own record of 52.24, which he set last year at CCS. Shiang placed eighth in finals.
Senior co-captain Mark Higgins also swam an All-American time on Friday in the 200-yard freestyle. Higgins finished first with a time of 1:41.59. Senior co-captain Jamie Nakamura placed fifth with a time of 1:48.56.
Nakamura finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:51.49.
Sanborn took second in the 100-yard breaststroke, with a time of 59.86 seconds. Saratoga senior Ben Hinshaw took first in the breaststroke, with the All-American time of 58.47 seconds.
The meet finished with the 400-yard freestyle relay. Paly’s relay team, made up of sophomore Arseniy Kotov, Nakamura, Sanborn, and Higgins, lagged behind until the final leg of the relay. Higgins anchored the team, speeding ahead of the team from Homestead High School to take third place. Paly finished with a cumulative time of 3:18.94.
“Everybody pitched in,” Dye said. “That meet was won by a team.”
The Vikings will compete in the preliminaries of the CCS meet on May 15 at the Santa Clara Swim Center.
“We’re just getting the team prepared for CCS,” Dye said. “I think they can do really well.”
Editor’s Note: This version of the story correctly states that senior Tim Wenzlau beat his previous record in the 100-yard backstroke, and that junior Emerson Shiang swam 58.69 seconds in the same event.