Falcons Gang Up to Repeat in Finals

The Crescenta Valley boys’ team once again found Belmont Plaza suitable as the Falcons wound up downing most of the competition in the Southern Section Division II swimming finals Saturday.

The Falcons won their second consecutive team title and their third in school history with 272.50 points.

Also for the second year, Hart finished second in the team standings with 223 points.

“Our coach just told us all to go out and beat somebody,” Crescenta Valley sprinter James Jenkins said. “Everyone, even if we didn’t win, we were just trying to beat someone and get the points.”

Junior distance swimmer Travis Taylor did his best to follow directions, winning the 500 freestyle event in a school-record time of 4 minutes, 31.64 seconds.

“It’s kind of like a snowball effect,” Taylor said. “When one person beats someone, it gets everyone else going.”

Taylor also swam a personal-best time of 1:42.38 in finishing second in the 200 free to teammate Kenny Carpenter, the defending division champion in the event. Carpenter won with a time of 1:40.10.

Carpenter, also the defending champion in the 100 butterfly, was upset by Tustin freshman Michael Cavic (49.61 seconds) in that event, but he wasn’t overly concerned with his second-place time of 49.77. Instead, the senior--headed to Brigham Young--enjoyed a victory in the 200 free relay (1:26.94), swimming the opening leg.

“I swam well,” Carpenter said. “I just didn’t have the finishing speed I usually do, but I have no regrets. I’ve had a dream career.”

Hart’s runner-up finish came despite a strong performance by senior Anthony Ervin, who was chosen boys’ swimmer of the meet after winning the 50-yard freestyle final in 20.32 seconds, and 100 free 44.28.

Alemany sophomore Maureen Farrell claimed the 50 free in 24.37 seconds and was second in the 100 backstroke (56.39).

Harvard-Westlake freshman Elizabeth Wong finished third behind Farrell in the 50 free (24.80) and Chaminade senior Kristine Ross was third in the 100 butterfly (58.63).

In the Division III finals, the performances of La Canada Flintridge resident Carly Geehr became redundant.

The 14-year-old freshman at Mayfield High in Pasadena began the day by winning the 200 individual medley in a division-record time of 2:02.35. She broke her own previous mark of 2:03.12, set in Friday’s preliminaries.

Then, Geehr won the 500 free with another division-record time of 4:46.51, shattering by more than two seconds the previous mark of 4:48.84 set by Stacy Shupe of Gahr in 1984.

Geehr also swam a leg on Mayfield’s 200 free relay team, which won in 1:40.27.