Falcons' outright reign continues

BURBANK — With dual-meet supremacy already in their back pockets, the Crescenta Valley High girls' and boys' swimming teams reaffirmed their dominance of the Pacific League championship meet, clinching outright titles at Burbank High on Thursday.

It marked the 20th straight league crown for the boys, while the girls' team has now strung together five in a row.

"We talked about that before the meet, that it was the 20th one, and just showing respect for the athletes who have come before and been part of that whole legacy," Crescenta Valley boys' Coach Jan Sakonju said.

While the Falcons girls' team (503 points) ended up with a comfortable margin over runner-up Pasadena (402.5), the Bulldogs stayed in the hunt, trailing by just 70 with four events to go. But Iva Icheva's two individual wins, a pair of relay titles and overall superior depth were enough to hold off the challenge.

"It's been an amazing day," said Icheva, who won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.83 seconds before capping her day with a win in the 100 backstroke in 58.94. "I'm so ecstatic, I don't even know what to say."

With its 563 points easily outpacing runner-up Arcadia (320), Crescenta Valley's boys' team won eight of 11 events and mostly had only its own past glory to chase, although that did prove elusive.

The Falcons were unable to lower any of the unprecedented seven league marks set by last year's team at league finals, although Harrison Thai did equal his own record of in the 100-yard backstroke of 51.16 seconds set in 2011.

But Thai, Young Tae Seo, Louis Wojciechowski and Edward Yi did shatter the league record in the 400-freestyle set by CV's Josh Chi, Tristan Winterhalter, Andrew De Jong and Sharif Alaoui in 2009, with their 3:10.06 mark shaving a full two seconds off the previous record. Wojciechowski also broke James Jenkins' 100-freestyle record of 47.16 (1999) by swimming a 46.33 in his leadoff split in the relay.

"It was definitely nice," Thai said of ending the meet with a win and new record in the 400-freestyle relay. "We had a really good relay last year. I think we went a 3:07 at [the CIF Southern Section Division II finals] and 3:10 for league finals is a great start. We're definitely in it for CIF and it's something to look forward to."