Mayfield swimming back atop Prep League

PASADENA — For the first time in recent memory, the Mayfield Senior swimming team found itself out of the top spot in the Prep League last year.

It didn’t take long for the Cubs to take back their crown, as their soaked coaching staff hoisted the league plaque after a celebratory dive into Pasadena Poly’s pool at the end the Prep League Finals Saturday.

“This year we’ve worked hard and this was our goal and we’ve achieved our goals,” Mayfield Coach Lynda Gilbert said.

While the final score suggested outright dominance from Mayfield, which took first with 335 points, it actually took back the league title with depth – not the front-end talent possessed by Pasadena Poly, which took second with 257 points after knocking off the Cubs a year ago, 319-294.5, to win its first title in about three decades.

Westridge (169) came in third Saturday with Flintridge Prep (168), Webb (155) and Chadwick (130) falling behind.

“We definitely have a very big team on JV and varsity,” Gilbert said of her team’s depth. “We can come in and get a lot of points, at least two and sometimes four girls in the finals and that’s what did it for us.”

Mayfield’s lone victory came from its 200-yard freestyle relay team of Lily Muir, Charlotte Watkins, Lilly Helmuth-Malone and Catherine Evans, which posted a time of one minute, 48.30 seconds – missing the CIF Southern Section Division III automatic time by .30 of a second.

Pasadena Poly senior Justine Cheng, who will swim at MIT next year, was named co-MVP of the meet, along with Flintridge Prep’s Jennifer Langen, after she won two individual events.

“It’s bittersweet, I am going to miss it,” Cheng said of competing in her last league meet. “High school swimming and club swimming is totally different and going next year to college swimming is going to be totally different. I love it, but I’m excited to see what college swimming is all about.”

Cheng won the 100 breaststroke (1:11.79) and 100 butterfly (1:01.04) with auto times and was part of the champion 400-freestyle (3:51.42) and 200-medley relay (1:57.45) teams, which were both CIF qualifiers and made up of Caroline Harvey, Catherine Finney and Heather Grotzinger.

Grotzinger also won and posted automatic marks in two events, the 200 individual medley (2:14.25) and 100 backstroke (1:03.07), for Poly, which also got a win and runner-up finish from Harvey in the 50 (25.89) and 100 freestyles (57.44), respectively.

“I’m happy, I finally got it,” Grotzinger said of the backstroke, “because I was trying to get it throughout the season and I was just a little bit off. I’m happy that I finally qualified.”

Westridge’s lone victory came from freshman Anna Billy in the 500 freestyle (5:43.51), while Tigers senior Elena Vega-Fujoka took second in (6:05.99).

“It’s kind of weird to think I’m a freshman and I just won the 500,” Billy said. “I don’t know, I didn’t think the high school season would be like this. I didn’t think I’d be winning stuff in my first year.”

The Cubs’ 400-freestyle relay team of Laura Reilly, Helmuth-Malone, Evans and Muir earned an automatic mark with a runner-up finish of 3:55.06. Reilly also earned an automatic time with a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly (1:03.99).

Mayfield’s depth was shown in the 200 individual medley, 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Reilly (2:22.47) and Brynn Evans (2:36.54) took second and third in the medley. The Cubs swept third through sixth in the 100 freestyle. Catherine Evans was runner-up in the 50 (26.30) and third in the 100 freestyle (57.63). Muir (1:08.14) and Brynn Evans (1:09.91) also went second and third in the 100 backstroke (1:08.14) – a race the Cubs swept second through fourth.

“I’ve noticed over the years we don’t get first or second, and we only have one club swimmer on our team,” said Muir, a senior, “but we have a lot of really strong swimmers that can get those good enough times. We get more points because of the depth of our team.”

Billy and Amanda Matthiessen added runner-up finishes for the Tigers in the 100 butterfly (1:03.15, automatic) and 200 freestyle (2:10.20), respectively.

On the boys’ side, Pasadena Poly took third with 213 points. Flintridge Prep won the meet and league with 374 points and Webb (249) was runner-up. Chadwick came in fourth with 198 points.

Poly’s 200-medley relay team picked up an automatic CIF time of 1:46.35, which was good for third. Individually, the Panthers’ best finishes were a trio of fourth-place finishes from Patrick Anderson in the 100 backstroke (1:03.17), Henry Brooks in the 200 individual medley (2:15.54) and Hazen Breen in the 200 freestyle (1:58.37).

In Friday’s diving portion of the meet, UCLA-bound senior Annika Lenz of Poly won the league title with 543.70 points, which automatically qualified her for CIF. Westridge also received a CIF automatic mark and third-place finish from Cassidy Golden (444.65) and Mayfield’s Makenna Crawford took fifth with 257.70 points, a CIF consideration mark.