Boys Take CIF Title

La Cañada boys’ swimming has acquired a reputation for excellence in the pool, and the Spartans performance at Tuesday’s Southern Section Master’s Meet lived up to that reputation.

Eight swimmers participated in the meet, which brings the area’s top athletes together to compete across all divisions.

And after defending their CIF Southern Section Division II title last week, the boys were able to relax in their accomplishment and have some fun at the Master’s competition.

Junior Ian Mirasola scored with the team’s best finish at fifth in the boys’ 100 yard backstroke with a time of 52.64 seconds. He finished sixth in the 200 yard individual medley, just four seconds after the first-place finish of 1:51.12 from Mission Viejo senior John Criste.

Mirasola was joined by seniors Jerrold Lee, Christian Lawrence and Wes Lewis in the 200 yard medley and together, the boys placed ninth with a 1:39.04 mark.

C. Lawrence also competed in the 100 yard breaststroke and the 200 yard individual medley, finishing with times of 59.36 and 2:01.43 seconds respectively.

Brother Julian Lawrence, a junior, placed No. 15 in the 200 yard freestyle and No. 8 in the 500 free.

Lee also raced in the 500 free, finishing No. 16 with a time of 4:42.21.

Lee, J. Lawrence, Mirasola and senior Masato Nakanishi completed the 400 free relay in 3:21.73, finishing 15 seconds after the winning team from Yucaipa.

Nakanishi swam a 54.17 in the 100 yard butterfly, two places after teammate Lee, who came in No. 22, finished at 53.53.

Lastly, Nakanishi, Lewis, junior Peter Chi and sophomore Chris Myers combined efforts in the 200 free relay, finishing in 1:30.13 at No. 16.

Carolyn Boosalis, Eunice Kahng, Kristin Varretto, Natasha Nguyen and Nikki Burns competed for girls’ varsity in the CIF prelims, but did not advance to the final meet.

Congratulations to all La Cañada swimmers for their performance in the water this season.