If the Crescenta Valley girls’ squad is to claim a piece of the title, as well, it will have to happen at the league finals, which begin on Tuesday at Burbank High, as the Falcons dropped their portion of Wednesday’s dual meet to the Apaches, 92-78.
“I tried to make two very even relays, we just needed to get second and third,” Sakonju said. “It’s not as exciting, but it gets you the win and that’s all that mattered.”
Sakonju took Josh Chi off the A team and put him on the B team along with Daniel Olson, Chris Veselich and Seth Biagini. That squad took third just behind the team of Andrew De Jong, Tristan Winterhalter, Sharif Alaoui and Thomson Gilles (3 minutes 26.82 seconds).
Crescenta Valley led by 12 after taking the second, third and fourth spots in the 100 freestyle and by 10 following Jason Kim’s win in the 100 backstroke in 56.16.
But Arcadia pulled to within 80-76 by taking first, third and fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
“It was a really big win,” said De Jong, who also helped the Falcons’ cause with a win in the 200-individual medley in 2:01.94 and a surprising win in the 500 freestyle in 4:53.34. “We didn’t know what was going to happen coming in, but we’ve had a pretty strong team and we knew that we could beat them. It just depended on how we swam.”
De Jong, Winterhalter, Kim and Alaoui kicked off the meet with a win in the 200-medley relay in 1:40.63 and Alaoui put Crescenta Valley up, 44-34, with a win in the 100 butterfly (54.27).
Crescenta Valley girls’ Coach Robert Miller said he had no qualms about his team’s performances, quite the opposite, in fact.
But the Apaches, who matched every Falcons drop with an impressive drop of their own, were just better on Wednesday.
“The girls’ did wonderful, they just got outswam, that’s the way it was, but we had a number of large drops,” Miller said. “We only had six swims all day that were not [personal records]. It’s just that they outgunned us today.”
Reigning All-Area Girls’ Swimmer of the Year Yumi So won the 100 butterfly (56.23) and the 100 backstroke (58.20) for the Falcons, who also won two relay events in the afternoon.
Adrienne Ingalla, Corinne Ingalla, Janelle Kim and Kim Fraisse teamed to win the 200-freestyle relay in 1:51.13 and So, Krystle Ouh, Mackenzie Hobby and Julia Warden won the 400-freestyle relay in 3:51.26.
Hobby was second in the 200- (2:07.07) and 500 freestyle (5:47.29) and Corinne Ingalla was second in the 50 freestyle (26.81). Jay Hee An was a runner up in the 200-individual medley (2:24.79).
