Granada Hills sweeps the boys' and girls' titles at the City Section swimming finals behind a pair of dominant performances from each squad.
The pool dynasty continues at Granada Hills. The venue was different, but the result was the same as the Highlanders swept the boys' and girls' titles Friday in the City Section swim championships at East Los Angeles College.
It was the girls’ fourth title in a row and their 10th overall. They finished with 458 points, comfortably ahead of runner-up Cleveland and third-place Palisades .
“We’ve won City every year since I was a freshman so I’m pretty happy,” said co-captain Elaina Brier, a senior committed to UC Santa Cruz. “I got second in both of my individual events and won my relays . We turned into such a dominant team and this is the strongest one. ” GALA’s Jordyn Hale defended her crown in the 50 freestyle in 24.14 seconds , followed by Brier .
Hale also won the 100 freestyle in 53.06 after placing second last year to Iris Paek of LACES in 52.93. Brier was the runner-up this time in 54.24. Elise Kao of Venice repeated as 200 freestyle champion with a time of 1:54.98 and Granada Hills’ Meygen Flores was second in 1:57.90. Kao was second to Flores in the 100 butterfly and Flores’ teammate Sahasi Mahat was third.
Granada Hills’ Isabella San Jose won both the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke , Mahat was second in the 100 backstroke and Abigail Sirichalermchai was second to San Jose in the 100 breaststroke. The Highlander girls took third, fourth and fifth in the 500 freestyle and closed strong with a winning 3:42.78 effort in the 400 freestyle relay.
Not to be outdone, the boys racked up a whopping 512 points for their third straight title and fourth total . Palisades placed second for the fourth year in a row, two points ahead of Cleveland. Princeton-bound captain Ryan Zheng capped a stellar career by winning the 200 and 500 freestyles for the third straight time and anchoring the Highlanders’ winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays for the third year in a row.
“Four golds for the third year in a row — it makes all the hard work worth it,” Zheng said. Zheng swam the 200 in 1:41.75, bettering his 1:42.23 in last year’s finals meet at Valley College, to beat teammates Kyle Lee and Ryan Cha , who were second and third. Zheng topped last year’s winning time in the 500 by nearly two seconds in 4:40.42.
Granada Hills' depth was most evident in the 100 breaststroke, as Joel Shin , Ethan Gonzalez , Arya Shahriari and Jairus Paita swept the top four spots. The Highlanders lowered their times in the 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay and took first in the 200 medley relay by nearly three seconds but got disqualified when officials ruled Kenny Brier left early on the freestyle leg.
Brier won the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle while Reseda’s Volodymyr Balaban took the 200 individual medley in 1:57.11, followed by Shin .
“Every point matters every single year. ... I’ve never seen such unity in a team,” said Granada Hills coach Joshua Cheng, the architect of the dynasty, who swam for Cleveland and is now in his fifth year with the Highlanders.
“We finished right where we belonged — at the top! ” As his team chanted, “One more! ” Cheng said: 'Why stop there? '
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