Flintridge Prep boys’ swimming steams to fifth straight league title
The Prep League swimming season came to a close for Flintridge Prep with a festive finals in the pool at Pasadena Polytechnic and the Rebels posted strong results across the board.
The Rebels boys took home the league title for the fifth time running in convincing fashion.
On the girls’ side, the Rebels continue to trend upward, finishing in a tie for second place with Westridge.
“It is nice to see that both groups are working really well together,” Flintridge Prep Coach Ingrid Herskind said. “It’s been a fun year.”
The Flintridge Prep boys punctuated their meet with a historic performance in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The combination of Andy Langen, Winston Chen, Nathan Morrissey and Brett Bell set a new pool and meet mark in the preliminaries earlier in the week, but on Saturday did one better. The foursome posted a winning time of 3 minutes 13.15 seconds, which not only lowered the pool and meet records, but also set a new school record.
“The reason we set the record is, mostly, that we were having fun,” Langen said. “Coming into prelims we were all in just a really good mood and that manifested in that swim [in the finals]. It was just fast because everyone was having a good time.”
The Rebels boys had six swimmers who won at least two events in the league finals, led by senior Langen and junior Bell, who each won all four events they competed in. That resulted in the duo being named co-swimmers of the meet.
Flintridge Prep’s boys’ won emphatically, 413-260, over Webb with Poly in third at 258. Chadwick had 78 points.
In the girls’ final tally, Poly won with 363 points with Westridge taking second at 232 points, just ahead of Prep’s 231. In the final league standings, however, the Rebels tied with Westridge for second. Webb (162) was fourth, followed by Mayfield (145) and Chadwick (51).
Langen and Bell’s first win of the day came when the pair teamed with Chen and Matt Ng in the 200-yard medley relay and came away with a wire-to-wire victory in a time of 1:40.53, an automatic qualifying mark for the CIF Division III prelims.
Along with the two relay victories, Langen touched the wall first in the 50-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
The sprint victory came in 21.48.Langen’s second individual victory was in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:50.02. The senior, who will try to walk-on the swim team at USC next season, led from the start.
Bell’s two individual wins came in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke.
In the 200, Bell trailed early, but came from behind to post a winning time of 1:46.95. He then won the 100 backstroke in a time of 51.99, just ahead of his teammate Chen, who came in second with a mark of 52.86.
“I got first, which is really great, and [Chen] was right next to me,” Bell said.
Chen prevailed in the 200-yard IM. Chen, the No. 2 qualifier, outraced top qualifier Pranay Singh of Pasadena Poly to win 2:01.08 to 2:01.53. However, his second-place finish in the 100 back stood out for the sophomore.
“The 100 back [was my best swim],” Chen said. “Brett was right next to me. He was my rival for that race.”Ben Brookbanks, Nathan Morrissey, Ng and Ryan Huntley combined to come away with the title in the 200-yard freestyle relay, posting a time of 1:35.29.
It was second of Ng’s two relay wins, while it was the first of two relay wins for Morrissey, who also was part of the historic finale in the 400 free relay.
Brookbanks had qualified fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, but finished first in the final with a time of 50.61 just ahead of second-place Morrissey.
The Rebels girls’ second-place finish in the standings was a marked improvement from a fifth-place finish last season.
“We made the decision [at the start of the season] that we really wanted to get in the top three,” Herskind said. “Then we started to have a lot of momentum as the season continued and we just sort of realized we could actually start to fight for second.”
Flintridge Prep’s sole individual victory on the girls’ side came in the 100-yard freestyle. Rebel Emily Alameddine swam to the win in 53.51, which broke the pool record set back in 2014 by Flintridge Prep graduate Jennifer Langen.
“It was an amazing meet,” Alameddine said. “It is just amazing to swim with all of these swimmers. Just seeing myself next to all of them makes me so happy. It was just a really great day.”
Alameddine anchored the Rebels in 200-yard medley relay in the opening swim of the event. After being mired in third the entire race, the sophomore swam the freestyle leg and passed the Westridge swimmer to take second place in 1:53.82.
Next for the Flintridge girls and boys will be CIF competition.
“I think we have a lot of capabilities for doing well at CIF,” Herskind said.
PASADENA —