Crescenta Valley High swimming sweeps rival Arcadia

PASADENA — In an annual rite of passage, Crescenta Valley High finishes its Pacific League dual meet schedule with a matchup against rival Arcadia.

“Both programs prepare for this meet and the Pacific League championships each year,” CV boys’ Coach Jan Sakonju said. “It’s part of a season goal, but also a career goal. This meet is important. This rivalry is important.”

Both the Falcons boys’ and girls’ squads came through to claim the victory over the Apaches by scores of 99-71 and 117-53, respectively, on Tuesday afternoon at Pasadena City College.

The wins mean both squads of Falcons have guaranteed themselves to be at least Pacific League co-title holders, giving the boys a share of their 22nd straight title and the girls their seventh.

Both genders have the chance to claim the crown outright by following up their undefeated league dual meet schedules with a victory in the league finals next week.

The Crescenta Valley boys (6-2, 6-0) were led by the tandem of Eddie Gallegugh and Edward Yi, who both won four events, two individual races and two relays.

Gallegugh was the anchor of the 200 medley relay, teaming with Eric Park, Yi, and Hyun Sung Kim in a winning time of 1 minute 40:96 seconds.

Gallegugh won the 50-yard freestyle easily, besting the field in a time of 22:36 to send his team into the break up, 35-27. The sophomore also won the 100 freestyle, but that race was much closer. Gallegugh went stroke for stroke with the Apache in the neighboring lane, getting to the wall first in a time of 49.21, just .25 seconds separating him from second place.

Yi also won both of his individual events. The junior won the 100 butterfly in a time of 52.64 to repeat his feat from last year’s meet against Arcadia (6-2, 5-1), where he also won the event.

Soon after, Yi added a win in the 500 freestyle, taking an early lead and cruising to a nearly six-second victory in a time of 4:52.63.

“It was intense,” Yi said of the Tuesday’s competition.

The final race, the 400 freestyle relay, was also won by Gallegugh, Kim, Eric Park and Yi in a time of 3:18.19, setting the final winning margin of 28 points.

The Falcons boys’ other first-place finish was in the 200 freestyle relay, in which Daniel Park, Matt Chmait, Nathan Clark and Wesley Griffin teamed up to post the winning time of 1:33.62.

The Crescenta Valley girls (7-1, 6-0) also got off to a strong start with a win in the 200 medley relay. Iva Icheva, Heather MacDougal, Genevieve Krebsbach and Tiffany Duarte posted a winning time of 1:56.38 to easily best the rest of the field.

Both Icheva and MacDougal went on to post victories in each event they entered. Icheva smoked the field in the 50 freestyle with a first-place time of 25.38. The senior also took the top spot in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.47.

MacDougal won the 100 butterfly in the schools’ first race after the break, which saw the Falcons holding a 40-22 advantage after four races against Arcadia (6-2, 5-1). Her time of 1:01.07 led CV to a 1-2-3 finish. The sophomore then came back soon after to win the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:07.41.

“It was a lot of fun,” MacDougal said. “This is like a fun rival for us. I love this meet. I anticipate it each year. It’s great.”

After the break, starting with the sweep of the 100 butterfly, the Falcons pulled away from the Apaches, leading to the 64-point win.

“Especially in the back half of the meet, the girls really came out,” CV girls’ Coach Brent Danna said. “We went 1-2-3 in the 100 back, we went 1-2 in the 200 freestyle relay, 1-2-3 in the 100 butterfly ... so we had a lot of really good swims today.”

The other two CV girls who picked up individual victories were Sam Kohn and Alyssa Nguyen, both also members of the winning 200 freestyle relay. Kohn, a sophomore, won the 200 freestyle, taking over the lead late before winning with a mark of 2:02.86. Nguyen won the 100 freestyle in 1:00.38.

To finish the event for the girls and complete the sweep of the relay events, MacDougal and Icheva teamed with Elissa Arnold and Sam Kohn to win the 400-yard free relay in a dominant fashion.

“We are always very excited to swim against CV because even though they are our rival, they are our friendly rival,” Arcadia Coach Janice Clark said. “It’s a great meet for both teams to get swims because we can really push each other.”