La Cañada rules pool in first All-City Meet

LA CAÑADA — There is a plethora of dedicated high school swimmers in La Cañada Flintridge, but no event where they were in the same pool at one time.

That changed Friday afternoon as La Cañada High, Flintridge Prep, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and St. Francis came together at La Cañada High for the inaugural All-City Meet in competition and celebration of the area’s talent.

“These kids all know each other really well,” Flintridge Prep coach Ingrid Herskind said.

In addition to the slate of varsity events, there were also junior varsity swims along with additional exhibition heats so as many swimmers as possible could participate.

“We’ve got all these schools literally within like a half a square-mile radius of each other,” La Cañada girls coach Ernie Lee said. “A lot of great swimmers ... really from top to bottom, JV to varsity, it’s a really deep field. All these schools do.”

The meet was as much about celebrating the local swimmers as it was about the competition. In that vein, the event was not scored.

The event was originally slated to take place at Flintridge Prep, but a broken pump at the Rebels’ pool precipitated the change. The organization of the meet was shared by the host schools and the program was put together by Herskind.

In the pool, the competition was dominated by the Spartans. La Cañada won 14 of the 19 varsity events. That included all three of the relays, which featured a mix of boys and girls. St. Francis and Flintridge Sacred Heart combined their relay teams to create the proper mix in the pool.

The brother-sister tandem of Danny and Alexandra Syrkin led the way for the Spartans. The Syrkins won four individual events, all in dominant fashion.

“[They] are Division I swimmers,” Lee said. “They are very motivated, very talented and ambitious. It’s what they do and they do it really well. I think they push each other.”

Directly after the Syrkins had teamed with Eddie Cosic and Shannon Ring to win the 200 medley relay, Alexandra came right back for the girls’ 200 freestyle. The freshman was the only swimmer under two minutes, winning in a time of 1:59.95. Immediately after, Danny was victorious in the boys’ 200 freestyle, winning by almost 10 seconds with a time of 1:46.25.

Later in the program, Danny got back in the water and swam to victory in the boys 100 butterfly. The sophomore clocked a time of 51.50.

“I’m just happy to be here representing La Cañada,” Danny said.

Alexandra recorded another win in the girls’ 100 freestyle (55.20).

The chance to swim together in the same event was a first for the pair.

“It was really fun to swim in a relay with my brother,” Alexandra said.

Cosic also won two individual events. The junior first took the top spot in the boys’ 200 IM with a time of 2:03.53. Later, he won the boys’ 100 breaststroke (1:01.58).

The only other swimmer to win two individual events was Tolog Emily Giesler. The sophomore won the girls’ 200 IM in 2:20.72 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.02. The other win for Flintridge Sacred Heart was Sophia Cotman, who took the girls’ 100 butterfly in 1:07.08.

The other two schools also scored an individual win. Flintridge Prep got its win courtesy of Winston Chen. The decorated junior won the boys’ 100 backstroke with a mark of 56.50.

“Winston is a beautiful backstroker,” Herskind said.

The Golden Knights victory was courtesy of Christopher Bruce, who won the boys’ 100 freestyle with a time of 51.80.

“It was awesome to see all the teams from the area coming together and swimming. This is a fantastic concept that I hope continues into the future,” St. Francis assistant coach Matt Weiser said.

The other winners were all Spartans. Angelie Paull won the girls’ 50 freestyle in 26.51, Thomas Hoffman was tops in the boys’ 50 freestyle in 22.79, Ring won the girls’ 500 freestyle and Juan Grases won the boys’, in 5:40.01 and 5:08.80, respectively.

As a bonus to Friday’s participants, each victor set a meet record that will carry on as the event does until bested.

“Every race today was a meet record, which is kind of cool,” Hill said. “This is a tradition we want to keep. We want to do it every year.”