Tologs stay on course to defend league title

GLENDALE — Since losing to Louisville High earlier this season, the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy swimming team has maintained a must-win mentality.

There’s no alternative for the Tologs if they want to claim a piece of the Mission League title for the second year in a row and they kept that goal within reach by beating Chaminade, 103-66, in a Mission League tri-meet Tuesday at Loyola High.

“The big two are left,” said Tologs Coach Steve Bergen, whose team (4-2, 2-1 in league) will close the league season with meets against 2009 champion Alemany (4-0 in league) on Tuesday and a rescheduled meeting with 2010 co-champion Harvard-Westlake (3-0 in league) on April 28. “We’ve been digging out of a hole ever since [losing to Louisville], so the Alemany meet becomes real important for us on Tuesday.”

Double-winners Katie Altmayer and Emily Balog led the way for Sacred Heart against Chaminade (0-3 in league), which still managed to win four of the day’s 12 events despite having only 10 swimmers in its program.

“They’ve got two or three kids who are pretty talented,” Bergen said. “They did their fair share, they won their four events, but our depth was definitely the difference today.”

Altmayer, a freshman, won the 100-yard freestyle in 55.69 seconds and took first in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.09, both of which were CIF consideration times.

Balog prevailed in the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.18 and the 200-individual medley in 2:18.57 and the Tologs also got a CIF consideration mark from Meg Ryan in her 100 backstroke win (1:02.20).

The Tologs had six varsity swimmers leave the meet early for a school function, leading Bergen to insert some junior varsity swimmers in the lineup. Still, Sacred Heart was able to get some crucial points by winning two out of three relays.

Ryan (backstroke), Balog (breaststroke), Altmayer (butterfly) and Lauren Smith (freestyle) were able to win the 200-medley relay in 1:59.66, while Ryan, Balog, Eva Dulcich and Haley Shewfelt pulled through in the 200-freestyle relay in 1:48.59.

Diver Emily Boyd provided 200.50 points toward the Tologs’ win.