Young Tae Seo found a new path to victory with Crescenta Valley

But he would be asked to bring it home in the most important swim of the day when the meet came down to the 400-freestyle relay, in which Crescenta Valley needed only to finish ahead of Damien to avoid second place or a shared title.

Seo was slotted into the anchor leg of the relay, normally Wojciechowski's role, in order to give Seo a few extra moments of recovery time after his breaststroke race, Sakonju said.

The Falcons had a considerable lead by the time Wojciechowski turned in the stellar final swim of his high school career, but Damien and Haney weren't conceding anything. And despite being caught by Haney, neither was Seo.

"I knew he was going to bring it," Wojciechowski said of his teammate. "I knew he wasn't going to lose it at the very end."

With as many occasions as Seo has had to celebrate personal success, the group revelry that exploded on the pool deck and continued into the pool following the thrilling win showed one of the area's ultimate competitors in a different light — surrounded by joyous teammates, chanting his name and celebrating his role in the ultimate team achievement.

"He was the anchor that had to hold off that Damien swimmer to win that last race," Sakonju says. "I think there's probably very few moments in any athlete's career that they get to experience that, so I was extremely happy for him. ...When they had won that title, just the pride that he felt that he was very much a part of that.

"When you see somebody who does everything so right — work hard, train hard, be dedicated to his teammates — it's like a perfect sports story."

It was far from the end of the story for Seo, though, who hardly took a break between chapters. Since the season ended, Seo has kept busy, making hisU.S. Olympic TeamTrials debut in June at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha. He didn't make the London-bound squad, but it doesn't figure to be his last trials or the last word on the subject for an athlete who doesn't take defeat lying down.

"Since he was a freshman, his work ethic has just been phenomenal," Sakonju says. "In winning CIF we've had all these recognitions that we've had to attend and he's not been able to attend any of them because he's been going to practice or he has a swim meet. He never stops working. During the season it's the same thing. ...That work ethic has certainly translated into tremendous success."

And, of course, a great deal of Seo's motivation no doubt rests on what he and the Falcons can do next season.

"It's senior year so I'm going to have fun," Seo says. "I'll try to get the 200 IM record again and try to get the national high school record in the 100 breaststroke, but that's pretty hard, so I have to work on it.

"And [we'll] try to win another title for CV."