Despite competitive battle, La Cañada swimming swept by San Marino
Though the La Cañada High boys’ and girls’ swimming teams have shown growth and progress this season, aspirations of capturing a Rio Hondo League title fizzled in the face of stalwart San Marino.
The reigning league champion Titans received battles on both fronts, but the visitors held off the Spartan girls and boys by scores or 90-80 and 103-67, respectively, on Thursday afternoon.
The defeat was the first for both La Cañada squads, who dropped to 3-1 and 1-1 in league, while San Marino’s boys are 6-0, 2-0 and the girls improved to 3-3, 2-0.
“It’s a close meet and the closest meet we’ve had against San Marino in a while,” La Cañada girls’ Coach Ernie Lee said. “San Marino is so deep, but it was so nice to be competitive throughout. We’ve put in a lot of work and you see it.”
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Most of the drama took place on the girls’ side.
La Cañada fell behind, 10-4, after one event and trailed, 57-53, heading into the 200-yard freestyle relay, the eighth of 11 competitions.
In the relay, the Spartans team of Faith Florez, Genevieve Fraipont, Julia Bridges and Rowan Gordon pulled off a victory in 1 minute, 53.2 seconds, which held off San Marino (1:54.36).
The win, coupled with a third-place effort, as well, gave La Cañada 10 points versus four for San Marino, as the Spartans jumped ahead, 63-61.
La Cañada’s first lead was short-lived, however, as the Titans immediately rallied back with a victory from Jasmine Chen (1:02:25) in the 100 backstroke as San Marino bounced ahead, 72-68.
The Titans tightened the screws with a win from Ellie Chen in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.97) to extend the lead to 82-74.
La Cañada needed to finish first and second in the final race – the 400 freestyle relay – to pull out a victory and missed by taking second and third to ultimately lose by 10 points.
Despite the defeat, the Spartans were encouraged by their efforts.
“Honestly, I’m so proud of our team,” La Cañada senior swimmer Katrine Madsen said. “In the past few years, we haven’t been competitive against San Marino. We knew it would be tough, but we all came together and were supportive and we made it really close.”
La Cañada’s lone individual victory came from Shannon Ring, who captured the 50 freestyle in 26.40.
While the La Cañada girls’ lack of victories was somewhat offset by their depth, it was the reverse for the boys.
The Spartans tallied three individual and two relay wins, but struggled to accumulate points outside of those triumphs.
Each of those victories involved a swimmer surname of Stefan or Syrkin.
Senior Luke Stefan, an accomplished water polo player, won the 50 freestyle (22.54, CIF Southern Section consideration time) and was part of the victorious 200 medley relay (1:39.27, CIF automatic) and 200 freestyle relay (1:33.2, CIF consideration) squads.
Stefan teamed with freshman Daniel Syrkin, Eddie Cosic and Thomas Hoffman for the 200 medley relay, while Stefan, Christos Menemenlis, Wyatt Lowe and Hoffman were members of the 200 freestyle squad.
Syrkin also clinched a victory in the 100 backstroke (54.87, CIF consideration) and the 100 butterfly (49.73, CIF automatic).
“We didn’t win, but we got some good cuts for CIF against some tough competition,” La Cañada boys’ Coach David Hill said. “Obviously, we were hoping for that win, but regardless of the finish, I thought the boys did a phenomenal job and they continue to get better. I’m proud of them.”
Twitter: @campadresports
