Crescenta Valley Doesn’t Just Dominate in Boys

The Crescenta Valley High boys’ swim team won the Royal Invitational for the seventh consecutive season Saturday at Rancho Simi Community Park.

But the Falcons’ dominance didn’t end there.

Crescenta Valley’s girls’ varsity and both junior varsity teams won their divisions.

“It’s a tribute to our program,” Coach Pete Loporchio of Crescenta Valley said. “I think on all the levels the kids really responded.”

Crescenta Valley won the boys’ varsity meet with 380 points, finishing well ahead of Division II-rival Hart, in second place with 348 points, and third-place Rio Mesa, with 209 points.

The Falcon girls’ varsity won for the second time in three seasons, with 361.5 points. Westlake was second with 276 points and defending champion Granada Hills finished third with 210.

The Falcons showed they are nearing peak form as league finals loom.

The 20th annual meet featured nearly 1,000 swimmers from 36 schools from California and Nevada.

“We knew we had a really good team,” said Alexis Sheridan of Crescenta Valley, who won the girls’ 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.94, a career record by two seconds, and won the 500 freestyle in a season-best 5:09.50.

Travis Taylor of Crescenta Valley won the 200 freestyle in 1:44.85, more than 3 1/2 seconds better than second-place Eric Pritchett of Hart.

Taylor’s winning 500 time of 4:39.42 was a season-best and more than seven seconds faster than teammate William Ban’s second-place time of 4.46.72.

James Jenkins captured the 50 freestyle in 21.34 seconds and the 100 freestyle in 47.27.

Crescenta Valley’s boys and girls had top-three finishes in 18 of 22 varsity events.

Senior Brian Brown of El Camino Real won the 200 individual medley in 1:56.69, a little more than three-tenths of a second off the meet record of 1:56.38. He also won the 100 backstroke in 55.39 seconds.

His brother, Brett Brown, won the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.91, a career-best by nearly 1 1/2 seconds.

Taryn O’Leary won the girls’ 50 freestyle in 24.75 seconds and the 100 freestyle in 53.46 for Westlake.