Crescenta Valley Makes It All Come Together at Royal Meet

The Crescenta Valley High boys’ swim team is used to romping through the Pacific League and the Royal Invitational on the way to becoming a Southern Section Division II power.

Now the Falcon girls’ team is beginning to see how it feels.

Two weeks after beating league rival Arcadia for the first time, Crescenta Valley won its first Royal title Saturday at Rancho Simi Community Park. The Invitational is one of the strongest in Southern California, bringing together nearly 1,000 swimmers from 31 schools in an eight-hour meet.

The Falcons finished with 177 points, 34 more than second-place Westlake and 43 more than Rio Mesa.

Crescenta Valley clinched the team title in the final event--the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Falcons finished in 3:50.87, .01 ahead of Westlake. The Falcons did not have any individual winners--freshmen Tawne Fishback and Alexis Sheridan were the only ones who even placed in the top three, but Crescenta Valley won two relays, building valuable points.

The boys’ team was winning relays and placed in almost everything else, finishing with 342 points, 200 ahead of second-place Westlake, to win its fifth consecutive title.

Paul Oh, James Jenkins, Brian Hasbrook and Kenny Carpenter set a meet record in the 200 freestyle relay, finishing in 1:30.15. Carpenter won the 100 butterfly in 52.76 and Jenkins the 50 freestyle in 22.35. With Loyola in a down year, the Falcons have shown they are deep enough to be the favorites in the Section finals next month--nine swimmers have already qualified in individual events.

“Everything is coming together,” Coach Pete Loporchio said.

“This year, we have three good relays, before we had only two.”

The Falcons were just one of the many subplots with league championships looming in the next two weeks.

Saugus senior Heather Boylan set a meet record in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 5:02.67 and won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.63, but her mind is set on Thursday, when the Centurions will try and break Hart’s 15-year hold on the Foothill League title. Boylan has won four Division II titles the past two years, but has been mostly a one-person show for the Centurions.

“This is a great meet to get ready,” said Boylan, who has signed with USC. “We’re all up for Thursday.”

Anthony Ervin of Hart continued his outstanding season, winning the 200 individual medley in 1:57.16 and setting a meet record of 46.27 in the 100 freestyle. Teammate Ryan Parmenter won the 200 freestyle in 1:42.42 and the 500 freestyle in 4:39.32, beating Scott Weaver of Las Vegas Durango by .01 second.

“I went out strong for the first 300,” Parmenter said. “But I know I had a little bit of trouble when I saw I wasn’t pulling away from him. I had no idea who he was.”

Carrie Huffman, Ingrid Salazar, Jennifer Palmberg and Carrie Karamas of Royal set a meet record in the 200 freestyle relay, finishing in 1:44.68. All but Salazar are freshmen.