To say we had a great day would be an understatement.
Our 200 Medley Relay (Nicholas Lee, Jaren Sin, Owen Bollert, Jason Alietti) qualified in 16th place after Thursday's Prelims, but they ended up finishing 9th and scoring 16 more points than projected. It might have been the most important race of our meet because it set the tone for the rest of night. Without them earning all those points, we'd be in a big deficit.
Nathan Kim had a fantastic 200 Free, and came in 2nd by 0.02 seconds. I know he would have liked to finish first, but he did qualify for the CIF State Meet next weekend, which is a major accomplishment
Later, Jack Murphy was seeded 7th in the 50 Free but finished in 5th place with a best time, earning two additional points.
Both Jack and Nathan swam the 100 Free. Again, Nathan finished 2nd and again he earned a CIF State Meet qualifying time. Jack moved up from 8th place to 5th place and earned a best time.
Midway through the meet, the 200 Free Relay (Kevin Olmedo, Nicholas Lee, Jack Murphy, Nathan Kim) was seeded first and ended up winning by almost 2 full seconds. That is the first time a St. Francis relay won at CIF. It also broke the school record by 1.5 seconds and qualified for the CIF State Meet.
In the last individual event of the night, Nicholas Lee was seeded 7th in the 100 Back and finished with a best time in 6th place. And that improvement added one additional point.
As we got ready for the 400 Free Relay, the team score had us in 3rd place. Santa Monica High School was in 2nd, just five points ahead, and Cerritos was in 1st by 26 points. With 40 points on the line for first place in a relay, the guys knew they had to win.
Except, in the 400 Free Relay, we were seeded 7th. Jack Murphy went first and had the team in 2nd place. Kevin Olmedo went next and earned a best time but they slipped behind Santa Monica. Nicholas Lee went third, got a best time, and reeled in Santa Monica a bit. Nathan Kim anchored the relay and had a lot of ground to make up.
Halfway through Nathan's leg, I didn't think he could catch Santa Monica. But, after his last turn, I thought he had a shot. With a crushing last 25, he pulled ahead of Santa Monica to win the race. It's the second relay the school has won at CIF, was a CIF State Meet qualifying time, and broke the school record. [Video, Lane 1 nearest to the camera.]
In the end, St. Francis finished one point ahead of Santa Monica for second place (173-172). Cerritos won by 20 (193). This marks the best finish for the school at the CIF-SS Championship Meet.
All 7 of the guys will be on KNIT Monday morning to receive their hardware. Guys, wear your CIF Team Jacket and go to the KNIT studio instead of Homeroom.
These guys deserve a ton of credit; as do their parents. To get to this level requires a lot of sacrifice, a lot of saying no, and a lot of long drives. But you can tell from their smiles that they wouldn't have it any other way.
[R-L] Jaren Sin, Nicholas Lee, Owen Bollert, Kevin Olmedo, Jack Murphy, Nathan Kim, Jason Alietti, Brady Lowdermilk