Crescenta Valley Girls Go to Great Depths

The Crescenta Valley girls’ swim team used depth and determination to win its first Southern Section title at the Division II championships Saturday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

No Falcons finished higher than fourth in any individual event, but they placed in the top four in all three relays, collecting 94 points and finishing with a meet-high 198 overall to beat out second-place Peninsula (173) and third-place Alemany (154).

Crescenta Valley placed third twice and fourth once in the relays.

Alexis Sheridan was fourth in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, and anchored the two freestyle relays for the Falcons, who finished second to Santa Margarita last year by 11 points. Santa Margarita competed at the Division I level this season.

“It’s awesome,” Sheridan said. “We were all here today. Everybody was here today and really came to win this thing. Not winning last year and then winning it this year makes this so great.”

Crescenta Valley’s boys’ team, which won Division II titles the last three years, finished third. Damien won with 239 points, Riverside Poly was second at 183 and Crescenta Valley third at 181. Hart was fourth with 172 points.

Crescenta Valley’s James Jenkins and Alemany’s Maureen Farrell successfully defended the double titles they won last season.

Jenkins set school records while winning the 50 and 100 freestyles in 20.47 seconds and 44.65 seconds. Hart’s Mike Linn was second in each race in career-best times of 20.93 and 46.45.

The Florida-bound Farrell won the 50 freestyle (23.72) and 100 backstroke (55.46). Her backstroke time was slower than the division-record time of 55.06 she posted in preliminaries.

Matthew Jensen placed second in the 100 butterfly (51.56) and third in the 500 freestyle (4:39.50) for Chaminade. Notre Dame’s Brendan Everman was fourth in the 500 and sixth in the 200. Crescenta Valley’s William Ban placed fourth in the 200.

Division III

Erin Craft of Oxnard won the 100 backstroke and juniors Jessi Rodriguez and Carrie Fitzgerald sparked Camarillo to a runner-up finish in the team competition.

Craft, a freshman, timed 59.41 seconds in the backstroke. She was fourth in the 200 freestyle with a career-best 1:53.97.

Rodriguez placed second in the 100 breaststroke and eighth in the 200 individual medley. Fitzgerald was fifth in the 200 freestyle and eighth in the 500 freestyle.

La Serna won the girls’ competition with 279 points and Paso Robles the boys’ competition with 250 points.