2023 CIF State Championships: Finals Live Recap

After an electric prelims session yesterday that saw five meet records fall, we’re back for finals of the 2023 CIF Swimming and Diving Championships. The meet format is the same as the typical high school meet, though diving took place earlier in the meet.

Santa Margarita sophomore Teagan O’Dell had an excellent prelims on Friday, roaring to a new lifetime best and meet record of 51.11 in the 100 backstroke. She's the top seed in the 200 IM, where her lifetime best is notably already faster than the meet record of 1:54.31. She also helped Santa Margarita to two top relay seeds, including the 200 free relay, where she, Chloe Stinson, Asia Kozan and Gracyn Aquino fired off a new meet record of 1:31.19.

On the boys’ side, Rex Maurer, the new 500 free National High School record-holder, continues to impress. He set a new meet record of 1:33.58, just off the lifetime best he set last week. He's also the top seed in the 500 free, where we know he can be much faster than the comfortable 4:20.99 he swam in prelims.

Another swimmer on the boys’ side to keep an eye on is Ethan Harrington, who took down his own 50 free meet record with a 19.79. His lifetime best is 19.45, so we’ll see what he kept in the tank for finals. In the 100 freestyle, he notched the top time in prelims with a 43.59.

Podium:

Campolindo got the meet off to an exciting start, holding off a late charge from Santa Margarita's Ariel Lin to win the first event of the meet. Adriana Smith got things started for Campolindo with a 24.90 backstroke lead-off, turning it over to Emilia Barck, who split 28.58 in the 50 breast. Then, it was Jasmine Fok‘s turn (24.18), and Audrey Le-Nguyen anchored in 23.48. Le-Nguyen touched at 1:41.14, giving them the win over Santa Margarita by just .19 seconds.

Santa Margarita led off with Teagan O’Dell, who split 24.20, then turned to Nicole Christensen (29.48), Chloe Stinson (24.42), before Lin brought them home in 23.23.

Davis High took third, and they got a huge breaststroke split for Sarah Bennetts, who ripped 27.45.

Podium:

Santa Margarita's squad of Humberto Najera, Nathan Wu, Daniel Verdolaga, and Ramon Jiang broke the boys’ 200 medley relay meet record for the second time this meet. They combined for a time of 1:29.01, lowering the meet record from the 1:29.63 that the swam in prelims. The difference for them came on the back half of the race, as Verdolaga and Jiang both split faster than they did yesterday, with Verdolaga going 21.20 on fly and Jiang hitting 20.12 on free. Najera led them off in 22.38, with Wu swimming 25.31 on the breaststroke.

Loyola's squad of Ray Liu (22.84), Aleksos Binder (25.54), Max Cahill (21.21), and Abraham Lee (20.10) held on solidly to second, clocking 1:29.69 to just miss the standard that Santa Margarita set in prelims. They were well ahead of the third place Northwood, who took third in 1:31.38. Northwood's anchor Michael Abshier held off a massive charge from De La Salle's Zach Elian, who split 19.59 to pull De La Salle even with Northwood. It came down to the touch, with Abshier touching just a hundredth ahead of Elian for third, putting De La Salle fourth in 1:31.39.

Podium:

Asia Kozan took over the lead at the 100-yard mark and didn't look back, earning the title in the girls’ 200 freestyle in 1:46.02. Kozan is headed to UC San Diego in the fall, and turned in a time just off her lifetime best of 1:45.80, splitting 52.21/53.81.

It was freshman Ava De Anda who was out first, flipping at the 50 in 25.00. Kozan passed her at the 100 and Ava Chavez, another senior, passed her at the 150 mark, but she still held on to secure third place in 1:47.72, about a second off the lifetime best 1:46.48 she swam last weekend. It was Chavez, who's headed to Cal in the fall, who notched a lifetime best, swimming 1:47.42 to take about four-tenths off her mark.

Podium:

Rex Maurer added .26 seconds from him prelims swim, but his 1:33.84 was still more than enough to get the job done for him to repeat as CIF State champion. Maurer split 21.65/23.61/24.29/24.29, distancing himself from the rest of the field early in the race. He ended up winning by 1.85 seconds.

Cal commit Samuel Quarles clocked a lifetime best of 1:35.69 for second, improving on the 1:35.85 he swam in prelims. This meet is the first time that he's broken 1:36 in his career. Rounding out the top three was St. Francis’ Nathan Kim, who went 1:37.45 for third. Maurer and Quarles were pretty much on their own, but Kim held off Mason Wendler (1:37.61) and Owen Barry (1:37.96) for third, both of whom out-split him on the final 50.

Podium:

Teagan O’Dell dominated this race, roaring to a new National High School record with a 1:53.38. With that time, the sophomore erases Torri Huske‘s record of 1:53.73 from 2021 by .35 seconds. She opened in 25.38, then split 26.94 on back and 33.61 on breast before bringing it home with a 27.45 split on freestyle.

She left no doubt about who was winning the race, as she was 4.98 seconds ahead of Kathryn Hazle, who touched second in 1:58.36. For her part, Hazle also swam a lifetime best. The Cal commit clocked 1:58.36, getting under the 1:58.51 she swam two months ago in March.

Saratoga freshman Kelsey Zhang grabbed third in 1:59.56, getting her hand on the wall a tenth ahead of junior Emilia Barck.

Podium:

Colin Geer notched a new meet record of 1:44.94 en route to his victory in the boys 200 IM. The Michigan commit brought the record under 1:45 for the first time, breaking Ethan Hu‘s 2019 record by half a second. Geer split 22.29/25.91/30.84/25.90 en route to his win. Humberto Najera made up some ground on the backstroke leg with a 25.58 split, but Geer put the hammer down on the breaststroke leg and Najera split 33.15 on breast. Najera brought it back in 24.58, but Geer was too far ahead to catch and Najera finished second in 1:46.24.

Breaststroker Daniel Li took third with a lifetime best of 1:47.60, dropping .18 seconds from the lifetime best he swam last weekend at the CIF-SS Division II championships. He used a 29.41 breaststroke split to move up, then held on against Daniel Verdolaga, who charged home and finished just two-hundredths back of Li in 1:47.62 for fourth.

Podium:

Sophomore Gracyn Aquino picked up another win for the Santa Margarita girls, taking the 50 freestyle. She swam 22.84, just off the lifetime best 22.77 she logged last week at CIF-SS Division I Championships. She won the race by a wide margin, as she was the only swimmer to go sub-23.

Valencia's Joy Lee earned second in 23.26, right on her lifetime best of 23.24. She got her hand on the wall two-hundredths ahead of UC-Santa Barbara commit Gretta Callison, who swam 23.28. Callison swam a lifetime best 23.11 in prelims, and her time here was just off that mark.

Podium:

Ethan Harrington lowered his meet record for the second time at this meet, hitting 19.57 to erase the 19.79 that he swam in prelims. The swim rattles his lifetime best of 19.45. He won the race by about three-tenths, with West Ranch's Jonathan Gim claiming second in 19.88.

It was a huge swim for Gim, who's headed to Brown University in the fall, because it was his first time breaking the 20 second barrier. Gim took two-tenths off the lifetime best 20.08 he swam in prelims. Prior to the meet, his best was 20.11. Marre Gattnar–who's also headed to the Ivy League as a Harvard commit–earned third in 20.13, off his lifetime best 19.96.

Podium:

Liberty freshman Olivia Bell earned her first CIF State Championship victory of her career, taking first in the girls Paralympic 50 freestyle. She won the race by over two seconds, clocking 33.22. Behind her, Mountain View's Amanda Ford finished in second with a 34.72, and senior Alexis Unter rounded out the podium in third with a 45.51.

Podium:

Northgate sophomore Tyler McMillan earned the win in the boys Paralympic 50 freestyle, posting a 27.15. Alex Hall grabbed second in 31.34, and Nathaniel Grabowksi got the home team on the podium for the first time at the meet, earning third in 34.15. It's a huge lifetime best for the Clovis West freshman, who entered the meet with a 37.81 but has a recorded personal best of 38.19 from April 2023.

Podium:

Kelsey Zhang got on the podium for the second time today, but this time it was on the top step as she won the girls’ 100 butterfly. Zhang, a freshman at Saratoga, posted 52.94 for the win, about three-tenths off the lifetime best she swam two weeks ago. It was more than enough for the win though; she was the only one in the field to go sub-53.

Ava Chavez picked up her second individual silver of the day here after earning second in the 200 freestyle earlier. She clocked 53.67 and like Zhang's win, her second place wasn't really in doubt as La Jolla junior Arielle Brotman (who like Chavez is committed to Cal but is class of 2024) rounded out the top three with a 54.07. The rest of the ‘A’ final went 54-points as well, making it a tight race for positioning through the middle of the field.

Podium:

It was the same 1-2 as last year's championships, as David Schmitt and Colin Geer finished first and second for the second straight year. Both were markedly faster than they were last year, when Schmitt won with a 47.68 and Geer went 48.05. This year, Schmitt–a Harvard commit–earned the win in 46.49, only two-hundredths away from the personal best he swam 10 days ago. Geer got second in 46.73.

It was an all upperclassmen podium, as junior Daniel Verdolaga finished third. In prelims, he swam a lifetime best and he dropped even more time here, swimming a 47.23 for a .74 second drop from his entry time.

Podium:

Like her fellow freshman Zhang, Ava De Anda moved up from third to first on her second individual swim of the day. After taking third in the 200 free, she's now the CIF State Champion in the 100 free. She beat Asia Kozan by four-hundredths, 49.14 to 49.18. De Anda was out ahead of Kozan at the 50, turning in 23.95 compared to 24.12. Kozan motored home on the second 50, splitting 25.06 to De Anda's 25.19 but just ran out of room to chase her down.

De Anda clocked a lifetime best 48.85 at her division's championships, but this is a strong swim from someone who until March 2023, hadn't been sub-50.

Lila Heffernan, a junior, took third in 49.41, over half a second ahead of Sarah Bennetts, who was fourth in 49.90.

Podium:

Junior Ethan Harrington turned in his second meet record of the day, and third of the meet overall here with his win in the 100 freestyle. He swam 42.92 to tie the lifetime best he went at Winter Juniors – West and take down Alexei Sancov‘s meet record of 43.09 from 2018. Like his 50 free, Harrington's win was a decisive one; Samuel Quarles earned his second individual silver of the day in 43.64, about .25 seconds behind Harrington.

For his part, Quarles’ time of 43.17 is a personal best, bettering the 43.64 he swam at Winter Juniors – West. 50 free silver medalist Jonathan Gim continued to impress here in the 100, getting on the podium for the second time today. In his 50, he broke 20 for the first time and he's broken another barrier here, going sub-44 for the first time with his 43.54. He was 44.03 in prelims but before that his best stood at 44.18, making this a .64 second drop for him over the meet.

Podium:

This time, in the girls’ Paralympic 100 free, it was Amanda Ford who won the race with Olivia Bell finishing second, flipping the results from the 50 freestyle. Ford swam 1:15.88 to take the win, with the freshman Bell clocking 1:17.03. Both times are lifetime bests for the swimmers, with Ford dropping over two seconds from the time she swam 10 days ago at her divisional championships.

Alexis Unter was third for the second time today, rounding out the podium with a 1:37.96.

Podium:

Tyler McMillan claimed his second individual victory of the day with a win in the boys’ Paralympic 100 freestyle. He clocked a lifetime best of 1:05.10 to earn the win, beating the 1:06.19 that he swam last week. Joining him on the podium for the second time was Live Oak's Alex Hail, who finished third in 1:10.62.

Grabbing second was Lincoln High's Jesse Miller, who posted a 1:08.99.

Podium:

Kathryn Hazle made her second individual podium of the meet with her win here in the girls 500 freestyle. This wasn't exactly the closest race of the meet as the top 8 were all pretty spread out. The closest race was for third, with Samantha Hamilton beating out Olivia Sundgren by just over two-tenths. Hazle topped the field by over four seconds, clocking 4:46.23 for the win.

Junior Kaitlin Lee earned second in a lifetime best 4:50.65, improving on her 4:51.56 from prelims. Not only is this a big improvement for her timewise, it's also a big improvement in the standings. Last year, she won the ‘B’ final (4:56.31) and now she's the silver medalist.

Podium:

It was well off the National High School record he swam last week, but 4:16.17 was enough for Rex Maurer to easily capture his second win of the meet. Maurer established his lead from the first 50 and didn't look back, leaving future UC-Santa Barbara teammates Jack Hendrick and Owen Berry to fight it out for second place. Hendrick added .15 seconds from prelims, but was able to outsplit Berry on the final 50 (25.67 to 25.98) to get his hand on the wall in second with a 4:24.39. Berry finished five-hundredths behind Hendrick in 4:24.44.

Podium:

Santa Margarita repeated as the 200 free relay state champions, as Teagan O’Dell, Chloe Stinson, Asia Kozan, and Gracyn Aquino lowered the meet record that they set yesterday in prelims with a 1:30.90. O’Dell got the team started with a 22.40 lead off, clipping the 22.53 personal best she swam to lead off this relay yesterday.

Next, Stinson split 23.19, Kozan split 22.72, and Aquino anchored in 22.59. Each swimmer on the relay improved on the split they swam in prelims yesterday. They won by over two seconds, with Monte Vista coming in second with a 1:33.12. Genesee Quon (23.58), Pooja Hemige (23.70), Addy VonderAhe (23.03), and Gretta Callison (22.81) didn't have enough depth to challenge Santa Margarita, but they locked down second place, as St. Francis was over a second behind them for third in 1:34.75.

Podium:

In contrast to the girls’ race, the boys’ 200 free relay was quite a tight race. Ethan Harrington led off Palo Alto with a 19.58, just a hundredth off the meet record he set earlier in the session. It gave the team a big lead, which they held through the final exchange, thanks to 20.74 and 20.72 splits from Jayden Stoen and Henry Gibbs.

Throughout the race, both Loyola and Northgate had been inching closer. After Maurer's opening 20.15 leg, Loyola got a 20.51 split from Zachary Larrick and a 20.69 from Edward Kim. Mason Wendler started things off for Northgate with a 20.61, and Scott McMillan and Kyle Kendla clocked 20.72 and 20.24, respectively.

It came down to the anchor legs between these three teams, and Northgate's Andrew Hallett threw down a massive 19.79 to earn the win for his team in a meet record of 1:21.36. Abraham Lee split 20.13 for Loyola, while Arthur Balva went 20.77 for Palo Alto. Both Loyola and Palo Alto were also under the old meet record, finishing with final times of 1:21.48 and 1:21.81.

Podium:

Once again, it was all Teagan O’Dell in the 100 backstroke. One day after shattering the meet record with a 51.11, she lowered that mark again with a blazing 50.96. That marks her first time sub-51 seconds, and improves upon her fourth-place ranking among 15-16 girls in the event.

It's her second individual win of the meet (third counting relays), as earlier she set a National High School record in the 200 IM. She didn't win this race by quite as much, but she still won decisevly–well over two seconds ahead of Adriana Smith. Smith swam 53.22, about four-tenths away from her best of 52.87 from last week.

Podium:

It came down to the touch for the win in the 100 backstroke, as Marre Gattnar, Humberto Najera, and Edward Huang were all in it with a chance to win. Huang led the way at the 50, opening his race in 23.16 to the feet. He was closely followed by both Gattnar (23.23) and Najera (23.32).

Najera came home the fastest with a 24.51 second 50, but he’d led Gattnar get a bit too far ahead on the first 50 and couldn't quite close the gap, as Gattnar split 24.53 and took the win in 47.76. Both Gattnar and Najera passed Huang, who split 24.72. Najera touched second in 47.83, five-hundredths ahead of Huang's bronze medal effort of 47.88.

Loyola senior Max Cahill wasn't far out of the race for first; he flipped at the 50 in 23.28. He fell off the pace a bit on the back half (24.74), but finished fourth in 48.12.

Podium:

After finishing second last year, senior Sarah Bennetts is this year's girls’ 100 breast CIF state champion. Leading from start to finish, Bennetts swam a new lifetime best of 1:00.11 to get the job done, rattling the minute barrier. She clipped a hundredth off her best in prelims with a 1:00.86, but has now taken .86 seconds off her best since the start of the meet.

Hannah Marinovich also swam a lifetime best en route to her second place finish. She’d lowered the mark to 1:01.11 in prelims, but now she's eclipsed that with a 1:00.74. Marinovich was running third at the 50, but came home in 31.78 to power past Audrey J-Cheng, who took third in 1:01.30.

Podium:

For the second straight year, Daniel Li is the CIF State Champion in the boys’ 100 breaststroke. He logged 52.83, which is his third swim sub-53 (the first was last week at CIF-SS Division II Championships, where he went his PB of 52.43). The swim was nine-tenths faster than what he went to win the race last year, and he won by over a second.

Jonah Lee swam a big lifetime best of 53.90 to take second. It's his first time under 54 seconds, as he’d set his best at 54.19 last week. Li led the race from the start, but Lee had second place locked down pretty early as well, as he was about a half-second ahead of Landon Nava and Thomas Aguero and extended that through the second-half of the race. Aguero held on for third, touching in 55.10.

Podium:

Santa Margarita earned their second relay win of the day to close out the meet. The team of Asia Kozan (50.06), Audrey Lee (51.88), Ariel Lin (50.85), and Gracyn Aquino (49.83) posted 3:22.62 to win the girls’ 400 free relay by almost two seconds.

It was Davis High who finished second, with Sarah Bennetts leading off in 50.17 before turning things over to Adelia Biello (51.27), Sara Kos (52.56), and Ava Portello (50.47). They combined for 3:24.47, solidly ahead of St. Ignatius, whose team finished third in 3:25.25, holding off St Francis for the last spot on the podium by six-hundredths.

Podium:

In the last event of the meet, the Loyola squad of Rex Maurer, Zachary Larrick, Ray Liu, and Max Cahill obliterated the meet record, swimming 2:56.14 to get under the old record by 2.36 seconds. Three of the Loyola swimmers helped set the old meet record, with Liu being the swimmer who drew onto the relay this year. Maurer led off in 43.28, which ties his lifetime best. Larrick split 44.09, Liu 44.44, and Cahill brought them home in 44.33.

Palo Alto also went sub-3:00, with Ethan Harrington leading off in 43.47. They went with the same squad and same order that they did in the 200 free relay: Harrington, then Jayden Stoen (45.60), Henry Gibbs (45.48), and Arthur Balva (45.12).

Northwood got the better of Northgate by a hundredth for the final spot on the podium, 3:00.52 to 3:00.53. Will Chen (45.30), Andrew Maksymowski (46.22), and Derek Hitchens (44.42) gave Christopher Leung the lead heading into the final leg. Leung split 44.58, just holding off a huge swim from Northgate's Andrew Hallett, who split 44.19 to power Northgate to fourth place.