James Martin

Julia Adams Ruben Allaverdian Marlen Anadolian Daniel Armstrong Margarit Aroutunian Kevork Aroyan Mariam Avagyan Vanessa Avila-Gutierrez Gayaneh Baghdasarian Brian Bauer Armin Bazik Mathews Blaha Chelsea Bogdon Michael Bonino-Britsch Kyle Booth Megan Bordley Adriana Carmona Sadie Chowdhury Ha Chung Logan Coffin Caitlin Coles Levon Darakchyan ...

GLENDALE ? Saturday was a breakthrough day for former Crescenta Valley High swimming standout James Martin, as he qualified for two championship final heats at the Janet Evans Invitational at USC?s McDonald?s Swim Stadium. Yumi So?s breakthrough came a day later at the Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational in Omaha, where the Crescenta Valley junior qualified for her only championship final in three days of competition. It was Andrea Kropp of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy who enjoyed the most success out of the small group of locals active in either major national event, however.

Edgar Melik-Stepanyan If his Crescenta Valley High boys' swim team was in any other division, Jan Sakonju probably wouldn't have been as carefree as he was Friday night. But with the Falcons competing in a deep and talented Division I, the CV head coach could focus on his athletes' times -- and make sure none of his swimmers dug six-feet holes on the beach like they did during Wednesday's preliminaries. CV had mixed individual results in the CIF Southern Section-Toyota Swimming and Diving final at Belmont Plaza, but it accomplished its top goal.

The Crescenta Valley boys' and girls' varsity swim teams finished 17th and 16th, respectively, in tough competition at the CIF Southern Section-Toyota Division I final at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach last Friday. The boys' team accumulated 53 points while the girls picked up 43 points. The best performance was turned in by Sara Sun who took second in the 500 yard freestyle behind Glendora's Courtney Eads (4:49.21 to 4:55.94). She also came in eighth in the 50 freestyle (24.31)

GLENDALE — It's been an exhausting week for many of the area's top swimmers, but there's been plenty of knowledge gathered and experienced gained. One of the more powerful groups to make a splash this week has been the Swim Pasadena women's 400-meter relay team. Crescenta Valley High's Sara Sun, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy's Bianca Marquez, Samantha VandenBerge of La Serna and Mayfield's Ann Tsuchiya teamed up to clock 4 minutes .05 seconds to take 18th out 72 teams in the long-course race on Thursday night at the prestigious place Speedo USA Swimming Junior National Championships at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatic Center in Irvine.

GLENDALE ? Ever since the end of the last season, the La Cañada High boys' swimming team has been on a mission to prove that it has the best program in CIF Southern Section Division II. It's starting to prove that it has a team that might be able contend in Division I, as well. The Spartans won their second consecutive invitational on Saturday, scoring 347 points to take the 26th Royal Invitational at Rancho Simi Community Pool in Simi Valley. They beat out Oaks Christian, which won the Division IV championship in 2005, for the second time in five days, as the Lions finished with 303 points.

GLENDALE ? With the CIF Southern Section swimming championships complete, several area swimmers will have the opportunity to put an exclamation point on their seasons. Members of the Flintridge Prep, La Cañada and Crescenta Valley high squads will compete in the inaugural Southern Section Masters meet, which will begin at 6 p.m. today at the Long Beach Belmont Plaza. The preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. with the top 16 qualifiers returning for the final. There will be 24 swimmers in each preliminary event ?

GLENDALE ? The area produced four individual CIF champions in swimming and diving last season, in addition to a team championship that was later taken away because of a technicality. But as remarkable a year as that was, 2006 figures to be equally as good, if not better. Sara Sun and Andrew Nguyen captured individual CIF swimming titles, and Marissa Samaniego and Edgar Simonyan won diving crowns. From that talented quartet, just Samaniego graduated, meaning come mid-may, local athletes should again be creating headlines from Long Beach's Belmont Plaza.

Charles Rich Knowing the rivalry firsthand, the members of the Crescenta Valley High boys' swimming team weren't going to be torn apart. With plenty of emotion -- in and out of the pool -- between a cast of star swimmers from Crescenta Valley and Hart, keeping a winning streak intact remained the center of attention for the Falcons. Crescenta Valley got plenty of help from Chris Sherman, James Martin and Chris Kang as they led the Falcons to an impressive 100-70 nonleague victory against visiting Hart on Tuesday.