It just doesn’t get any better than this for Palisades High swim coach Maggie Nance. Her boys and girls teams destroyed competition at East L.A. College to capture City Section titles on May 13. In the process, the Dolphins broke six records and 11 swimmers and a diver qualified for the state meet in Clovis.
Nance was asked about coaching a team that has such top talent. “It’s gratifying, humbling and overwhelming,” she said.
In winning their fourth straight City title, the Pali boys team broke City records in three relays: the 200 and 400 freestyle and the 200 individual medley.
Junior Kian Brouwer was the day’s standout, setting three individual City records. He broke a 39-year-old record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:38.55. Teammate Hunter Loncar was second.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Brouwer swam 48.42 (smashing the old record of 49.94) and Greg Havton took second.
Swimming the first leg of the 200 freestyle relay in 20.77, Brouwer broke the 50 freestyle time of 20.87 set in 1993.
In the 50 freestyle, Roy Yoo took second (21.61) and Michael Cutiodioc was third. Yoo won the 100 freestyle (48.11).
Cutiodioc won the 100 backstroke (51.08) and Jon Havton was second. In the 100 breaststroke Alex Havton took third.
Senior Zach Senator won the 500 freestyle (4:38.93) and Loncar was third. In the 200 IM, Alex Havton finished second and his brother Jon was third.
In the 200 medley relay, Cutiodioc and the three Havton brothers set a new City record of 1:36.31, erasing the mark (1:37.42) set by a Palisades team last year.
The 200 freestyle relay team of Brouwer, Senator, Loncar and Yoo swam 1:26.04 to break the record (1:28.38) PaliHi set in 2014.
The 400 freestyle team of Brouwer, Loncar, Senator and Yoo swam 3:07.66 to break the year-old City record (3:09.66) held by a Palisades team.
Capturing their seventh consecutive City title, the PaliHi girls won the 400 freestyle relay, took second in the 200 medley relay and were third in the 200 medley relay.
Sophomore Dora Seggelke was a double winner in the 500 freestyle (5:01.61) and the 200 freestyle (1:54.77). Junior Leah Timmerman was first in the breaststroke and second in the 200 IM. Rose Walker, a sophomore, took third in the 50 and 100 freestyles.
Qualifying for the state meet at Clovis was Walker, Seggelke, Timmerman and Lilijana Carthan qualified for state, as did Alex and Greg Havton, Yoo, Senator, Hunter, Brouwer and Cutiodioc and freshman diver Asa Tatro.
Competing against 213 teams, the PaliHi boys finished 27th overall with Brouwer taking ninth in the 200 freestyle and seventh in the 100 butterfly.
And how will the team fare next year? “We are losing some solid girls who score for us. And Zach is a big loss,” Nance said. “But our boys junior class is crazy fast.”
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