Crescenta Valley High swimming is nearly perfect versus Glendale

GLENDALE — Winning 21 of 22 possible events, the Crescenta Valley High boys’ and girls’ swimming teams continued their strong push toward league championships with convincing victories over host Glendale in Pacific League action Wednesday afternoon.

The Falcons were a bit stronger on the girls’ competition in picking up a 136-35 victory, while the Nitros were a little more formidable in a Falcons’ 111-59 boys’ win in Glendale’s meet debut.

PHOTOS: Crescenta Valley and Glendale compete in Pacific League swim meet

“I think my squad is starting to get a little more focused as the season is progressing,” Crescenta Valley boys’ swimming Coach Jan Sakonju said. “I was really happy to see that coming out of spring break, which can be hard to do.

“I think what impressed me the most overall was that a lot of the Glendale performances were excellent today. It was great competition today and that helped our guys.”

The Crescenta Valley boys (2-1 overall, 2-0 in league) surrendered a perfect afternoon when Glendale’s Trenton Julian won the 200-yard individual medley in a CIF Southern Section Division II consideration time of 2 minutes, 4.15 seconds.

Glendale’s victory was followed by a Falcons’ closeout, as Crescenta Valley won the final eight races of the day, including a strong effort from Edward Yi in the 100-yard butterfly.

Yi just missed a Division II automatic mark of 53 seconds, when he took first in 53.21.

Yi’s finish was one of three close calls for the Falcon, who turned in a consideration time of 58:19 in the 100-yard backstroke.

Yi also joined the threesome of Eddie Gallegugh, Bradford Hales and Eric Park for gold in the 200 freestyle relay in a consideration mark of 1:33.99, which was a little off the automatic time of 1:30.50, but well ahead of the consideration standard of 1:35.50.

Overall, Yi was part of four victories as he teamed with Gallegugh, Daniel Park and Eric Park for an opening victory in the 200-yard relay in a time of 1:45.58.

Eric Park, part of two championship relay teams, also took home a victory in the 100 freestyle in 50.92.

Wesley Hovanesian won the 200 freestyle (2:06.80), Ryan Moguel took home the 50 freestyle (23.89), Vasil Halchev clinched the 500 freestyle (5:33.74) and the relay squad of Hales, Connor Johnson, Taehoon Kim and Gallegugh won the 400 freestyle in 3:35.13 for Crescenta Valley.

On the girls’ side, the Falcons completed a clean sweep in winning all 11 events and received a few standout performances, including one from Heather MacDougall.

The sophomore had a hand in four total victories, posting wins in the 100 butterfly (58.95), 100 backstroke (59.98) and teaming for wins in the 200-yard medley relay (2:08.14) and 400-yard freestyle relay (4:01.08).

One of her teammates on the 200 medley relay was fellow sophomore Samantha Kohn, who also took home individual victories in the 50 freestyle (26.77) and 100 freestyle (58.70).

Falcons senior Iva Icheva claimed triumphs in the 100 breaststroke (1:17.89), 200 freestyle (2:08.34) and was a member of the winning 200 freestyle relay squad (1:50.88).

Elissa Arnold, who competed in four events Wednesday, picked up an individual win in the 500 freestyle (6:11.25), while Isabelle Higuchi won the 200 individual medley in 2:33.66.

“I was really proud of the effort I saw from both my boys and girls,” Glendale Coach Forest Holbrook said. “On the boys’ side, we competed and I was impressed with our efforts, led by Trenton Julian.

“On the girls’ side, we knew it was going to be difficult with CV because they’re so good and have so much depth. We wanted to go out and compete and we did that.”

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Follow Andrew J. Campa on Twitter: @campadresports.