Young Taeo Seo leads Falcons to banner day in CIF

The top-10 individual performances by an athlete in an individual setting from the 2011-12 season were voted on by the Glendale News-Press sports department.

1 Young Tae Seo highlights banner day for himself, Falcons, May 12, 2012 — Seo and the Crescenta Valley High boys' swimming team finally captured first prize at the elusive CIF Southern Section Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at Riverside Aquatics Center for the program's first CIF crown since 2000.

Individually, Seo won the 500-yard freestyle in 4 minutes 28.95 seconds and the 100 breaststroke in a mark of 55.91 that was just .10 of a second off his own meet record set in 2011.

It came down to the final event — the 400-freestyle relay. The Falcons needed a victory in the race to capture the title.

Seo, who teamed with Harrison Thai, Louis Wojciechowski and Edward Yi, anchored the final leg of the event and out-touched Damien's Jason Haney by .42 seconds to give the Falcons a meet-record time of 3:05.50 and give Crescenta Valley a 301-293 win against Damien.

"I was kind of scared the first 50 [yards], so I tried to have more energy, I was training for distance swimming, not sprinting," Seo said. "I tried to go as fast as I could the last 25 [yards], no matter what. I don't care if I die or not. I [wanted to] do whatever I had to do and finish before Damien."

Seo also worked with Thai, Jacob Ksendov and Antonio Camarillo to open the meet with a win in the 200-medley relay (1:35.51).

2 Harrison Thai has big day for champion Falcons, May 12, 2012 — Thai enjoyed a stellar day for the Crescenta Valley boys' swimming team. He won two individual events and helped win two relays, including swimming a leg on the 400-freestyle relay that netted Crescenta Valley the CIF Division II crown.

In the 400-freestyle relay, Thai grouped with Seo, Wojciechowski and Yi to win in 3:05.50 and help Crescenta Valley outlast Damien. Earlier, Thai worked with the same trio to win the 200-medley relay in 1:35.51.

Thai also took a pair of individual races. He won the 200-individual medley (1:48.86) and the 100 backstroke (50.31 seconds).

"It's a pretty sweet win for me because I've been in it for the last two years and I've been out-touched every time," Thai said of the backstroke. "It's nice to finally win this one, especially."