Saeta Wins CIF Crown, Sets Record in 100 Yard Backstroke
Junior Andrew Saeta recorded this year's third fastest time in the nation by swimming to a 48.94 time in the 100-yard backstroke, breaking the eight-year old CIF Section II Championship meet record held by Olympian Michael Cavic. Saeta also won the event in 2007. Poly also finished fifth in the 200 individual medley as the team of Saeta, Nathan Min, Billy Olson, and Tom Gilfillan registered a time of 1:38.83. Poly wound up 13th overall as Saeta picked up a second place in the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 1:50.98.
On Saturday, 5 boys headed down to Belmont Plaza in Long Beach for the CIF-SS Division II Swimming Finals...when the day ended for us, 5 All Time Prep League records were broken, 5 school records were broken and a CIF Division 2 record was broken!
What was simply amazing was the fact that all 5 swims for us on the day resulted in season best times and the combined effort of Andrew Saeta, Nathan Min, Billy Olson,Tommy Gilfillan and Haynes Winkler produced a 13th place showing in what is the toughest Division Poly has ever competed in (we spent many years in Division III and before that, the CIF 2A division - the equivalent of D3)...
Leading off the day was the Medley Relay...going in with a 1:39.55 seed time from the preliminaries, the guys knew that the Poly and All Time Prep League record of 1:38.95 was within reach...we also knew that backstroker Andrew Saeta was shaving for the finals, so he'd be faster than his :23.04 split from the preliminaries...with a little bit of work on Billy Olson's fly technique, having seen Nathan Min blast out a 1:00 in the 100 breast in prelims and Tommy Gilfillan anchor a sub-22 freestyle split, I was very optimistic that the boys could break the record...
Andrew led off with a blazing :22.66 leg in the backstroke...his first time under:23 seconds and the fastest person across all 4 divisions in that leg...Nathan followed with a personal best :27.66 breaststroke leg to give us a lead of nearly a second after the first 2 legs (Poly's 1st100 in the relay was faster than all teams in all divisions!)...Billy followed with a personal best :26.18 leg in the fly - nearly 3 tenths faster than his prelims swim!...Tommy finished out the relay for us with a solid :22.33 leg in freestyle - not bad considering he rolled his ankle on Friday and woke up with a sore throat on Saturday!
When you add it all together, the boys swam an ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE and a SCHOOL RECORD 1:38.83!...the previous record was held by William Van Der Touw, Sam Lee, Tim Wang and Duncan Hedges at 1:38.95...the boys not only moved up from 8th place to 6th place in the relay, but they beat some of the bigger schools in our division (Damien and Crescenta Valley)...
Finally, the only thing that is missing from the performance was a time that would achieve All American recognition...that time is 1:38.77 (an eyelash!)...we'll have another chance come Tuesday as the boys have qualified for the CIF Masters Meet!
The next swim for us featured Andrew Saeta in the 200 individual medley...Andrew already owned the All Time Prep League and School records in the event, so the only person he was trying to chase was himself!...as for the competition in the meet, his main competitor was Ian Mirisola from La Canada...last year, Mirisola barely beat Andrew to win the CIF crown...Andrew was hoping to exact a bit of revenge onSaturday...
Leading after the butterfly leg, Andrew was in a great position just 50 yards into the race...unfortunately, Mirisola took control in the backstroke leg (a surprise to all of us) and extended it in the breaststroke leg...despite Andrew's best attempt to finish strong, Mirisola had too big of a lead...Andrew finished in 2nd for the 2nd consecutive year.
So how good was his swim?...1:50.98 blows away his personal best time established last yearat 1:52.29!...the time is also a new ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE and SCHOOLrecord!...it also ranks him 13th in the country in this event...for Mirisola, his 1:49.50 performance currently ranks 3rd in the nation...it took that great of a swim to beat the great Andrew Saeta!
Next on the schedule for us was the 100 backstroke...after last season's performance, Andrew had his eyes set on the CIF Division 2 record of:49.40 set by Michael Cavic, an Olympian, back in 2000...it wasn't going to be easy, however, as Tony Cox from Alemany busted out a very impressive :22.78 backstroke leg leading off his team's medley relay...this was going to be a race...
The two boys didn't disappoint as both got off to fast starts...Tony took a slight lead at the 1st 50 - :23.72 to Andrew's :23.91...by the 75, they were pretty even and heading toward the final wall...
In what was probably the advantage in this race, Andrew used his long reach to get to the wall just ahead of Cox in a new CIF Record time of :48.94!...it is Andrew's first time under :49 seconds in the event and is a time that currently ranks #3 in the nation!!!
Needless to say, this was a great race and an even greater performance by Andrew...it drew the LATimes individual highlight of the meet and needless to say, he broke 3 records in this one race - CIF DIVISION 2 RECORD, ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD and POLY SCHOOL RECORD!
Following Andrew's backstroke was Nathan Min in the breaststroke event...when Nathan went 1:00.74 in the preliminaries, I told him that the All Time Prep League record was set way back in 1969 by Mark Chatfield from Flintridge Prep...his time was 1:00.40...would the record fall in its 39th year or would it survive to see 40?
In true competitive form, Nathan used the fast competition to get out to a great 50 split at :28.16...he was about half a second faster than his 1st 50 in prelims...the big question was whether or not he went out too fast...
...:31.94 seconds later,we had our answer and it was a resounding NO!...in fact, he went out faster in his 1st 50 compared to his prelims swim and came back faster in his 2nd 50 than his prelims swim!...you add that together and his total time of 1:00.10 is a new ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD and a new POLY SCHOOL RECORD!
1 tenth of a second away from the legendary 1 minute mark in breaststroke...Nathan may have a chance to do it at the CIF Masters Meet on Tuesday, but we'll have to wait until the final seedings come out on Monday (he's ranked 25th and you need to be 24th to make it)...
The final event of the day for us was the 400 free relay...in prelims, I swam the same order the guys have been swimming most of the season - Tommy Gilfillan first (to use his speed to give us an early lead), Haynes Winkler second to try and keep us competitive, Nathan Min third to give him as much rest as possible since he swam breaststroke just a few minutes earlier (an extra minute or two of rest can go a long way!) and Andrew Saeta on the anchor leg so he can chase down the competition, which usually allows him to kick it into an extra gear...
Once the finals came around, I figured we could play around with the order a little bit because (1) we weren't competing for the team title and (2) we made the top-16, so we really had nothing to lose!...what I ended up doing was having Andrew go first (I made him do it - brilliant coaching) so his leadoff leg counts for record setting purposes and moved Tommy Gilfillan to the anchor leg to see if he had that extra gear that Andrew has as an anchor...to add to the shuffle, I went ahead and switched Nathan and Haynes, so the relay was swimming in reverse order for the finals...
As expected,Andrew led off with an amazing swim...:45.87 was the fastest leadoffleg for all the Division 2 teams and his time would have won the 100 freestyle earlier in the meet (bad coaching, I guess, not having him swim it in favor of the 200 IM!)...it also broke Mike Miao's ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD of :46.20 set in 1980 (28 years old) and the POLY SCHOOL RECORD of :46.45 set by Kresimir Peharda '86 back in 1985!
Nathan Min followed with a tired, but solid :50.71 leg (in hindsight, I should have had him go 3rd and give him an extra minute of rest)...Haynes Winkler swam another season best :52.73 leg and handed it off to Tommy Gilfillan who swam a spectacular :48.89 leg as our anchor - 1st timeunder :49! (and now officially faster than his coach was in his prime -many eons ago)...
The team time of 3:18.20 moved us up from 14th to 13th in the relay and was just a bit shy of the school and league records of 3:14.91 held by the quartet of William Van Der Touw, Duncan Hedges, Sam Lee and Tim Wang (the same quartet who held the medleyrelay record)...
Saturday was simply spectacular...Andrew Saeta set 4 All Time Prep League Records, 4 School Records, 1 CIF Division 2 record, made 3 All American cuts, won a CIF title and was 4-for-4 in personal best times...
Not too shabby for a day's work, eh?
The5 boys who swam this meet were amazing...it was the most exciting mee tfor us since the 2001 season when we saw Poly swimmers win 5 CIF titles en route to a 3rd place finish in the Division 3 meet...
Next up for the guys (and our 2 girl divers) is the CIF Masters meet on Tuesdayat Belmont Plaza...we are still waiting to get final word on who will participate, but rest assured, Poly will be well represented in the competition!
Back
What was simply amazing was the fact that all 5 swims for us on the day resulted in season best times and the combined effort of Andrew Saeta, Nathan Min, Billy Olson,Tommy Gilfillan and Haynes Winkler produced a 13th place showing in what is the toughest Division Poly has ever competed in (we spent many years in Division III and before that, the CIF 2A division - the equivalent of D3)...
Leading off the day was the Medley Relay...going in with a 1:39.55 seed time from the preliminaries, the guys knew that the Poly and All Time Prep League record of 1:38.95 was within reach...we also knew that backstroker Andrew Saeta was shaving for the finals, so he'd be faster than his :23.04 split from the preliminaries...with a little bit of work on Billy Olson's fly technique, having seen Nathan Min blast out a 1:00 in the 100 breast in prelims and Tommy Gilfillan anchor a sub-22 freestyle split, I was very optimistic that the boys could break the record...
Andrew led off with a blazing :22.66 leg in the backstroke...his first time under:23 seconds and the fastest person across all 4 divisions in that leg...Nathan followed with a personal best :27.66 breaststroke leg to give us a lead of nearly a second after the first 2 legs (Poly's 1st100 in the relay was faster than all teams in all divisions!)...Billy followed with a personal best :26.18 leg in the fly - nearly 3 tenths faster than his prelims swim!...Tommy finished out the relay for us with a solid :22.33 leg in freestyle - not bad considering he rolled his ankle on Friday and woke up with a sore throat on Saturday!
When you add it all together, the boys swam an ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE and a SCHOOL RECORD 1:38.83!...the previous record was held by William Van Der Touw, Sam Lee, Tim Wang and Duncan Hedges at 1:38.95...the boys not only moved up from 8th place to 6th place in the relay, but they beat some of the bigger schools in our division (Damien and Crescenta Valley)...
Finally, the only thing that is missing from the performance was a time that would achieve All American recognition...that time is 1:38.77 (an eyelash!)...we'll have another chance come Tuesday as the boys have qualified for the CIF Masters Meet!
The next swim for us featured Andrew Saeta in the 200 individual medley...Andrew already owned the All Time Prep League and School records in the event, so the only person he was trying to chase was himself!...as for the competition in the meet, his main competitor was Ian Mirisola from La Canada...last year, Mirisola barely beat Andrew to win the CIF crown...Andrew was hoping to exact a bit of revenge onSaturday...
Leading after the butterfly leg, Andrew was in a great position just 50 yards into the race...unfortunately, Mirisola took control in the backstroke leg (a surprise to all of us) and extended it in the breaststroke leg...despite Andrew's best attempt to finish strong, Mirisola had too big of a lead...Andrew finished in 2nd for the 2nd consecutive year.
So how good was his swim?...1:50.98 blows away his personal best time established last yearat 1:52.29!...the time is also a new ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE and SCHOOLrecord!...it also ranks him 13th in the country in this event...for Mirisola, his 1:49.50 performance currently ranks 3rd in the nation...it took that great of a swim to beat the great Andrew Saeta!
Next on the schedule for us was the 100 backstroke...after last season's performance, Andrew had his eyes set on the CIF Division 2 record of:49.40 set by Michael Cavic, an Olympian, back in 2000...it wasn't going to be easy, however, as Tony Cox from Alemany busted out a very impressive :22.78 backstroke leg leading off his team's medley relay...this was going to be a race...
The two boys didn't disappoint as both got off to fast starts...Tony took a slight lead at the 1st 50 - :23.72 to Andrew's :23.91...by the 75, they were pretty even and heading toward the final wall...
In what was probably the advantage in this race, Andrew used his long reach to get to the wall just ahead of Cox in a new CIF Record time of :48.94!...it is Andrew's first time under :49 seconds in the event and is a time that currently ranks #3 in the nation!!!
Needless to say, this was a great race and an even greater performance by Andrew...it drew the LATimes individual highlight of the meet and needless to say, he broke 3 records in this one race - CIF DIVISION 2 RECORD, ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD and POLY SCHOOL RECORD!
Following Andrew's backstroke was Nathan Min in the breaststroke event...when Nathan went 1:00.74 in the preliminaries, I told him that the All Time Prep League record was set way back in 1969 by Mark Chatfield from Flintridge Prep...his time was 1:00.40...would the record fall in its 39th year or would it survive to see 40?
In true competitive form, Nathan used the fast competition to get out to a great 50 split at :28.16...he was about half a second faster than his 1st 50 in prelims...the big question was whether or not he went out too fast...
...:31.94 seconds later,we had our answer and it was a resounding NO!...in fact, he went out faster in his 1st 50 compared to his prelims swim and came back faster in his 2nd 50 than his prelims swim!...you add that together and his total time of 1:00.10 is a new ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD and a new POLY SCHOOL RECORD!
1 tenth of a second away from the legendary 1 minute mark in breaststroke...Nathan may have a chance to do it at the CIF Masters Meet on Tuesday, but we'll have to wait until the final seedings come out on Monday (he's ranked 25th and you need to be 24th to make it)...
The final event of the day for us was the 400 free relay...in prelims, I swam the same order the guys have been swimming most of the season - Tommy Gilfillan first (to use his speed to give us an early lead), Haynes Winkler second to try and keep us competitive, Nathan Min third to give him as much rest as possible since he swam breaststroke just a few minutes earlier (an extra minute or two of rest can go a long way!) and Andrew Saeta on the anchor leg so he can chase down the competition, which usually allows him to kick it into an extra gear...
Once the finals came around, I figured we could play around with the order a little bit because (1) we weren't competing for the team title and (2) we made the top-16, so we really had nothing to lose!...what I ended up doing was having Andrew go first (I made him do it - brilliant coaching) so his leadoff leg counts for record setting purposes and moved Tommy Gilfillan to the anchor leg to see if he had that extra gear that Andrew has as an anchor...to add to the shuffle, I went ahead and switched Nathan and Haynes, so the relay was swimming in reverse order for the finals...
As expected,Andrew led off with an amazing swim...:45.87 was the fastest leadoffleg for all the Division 2 teams and his time would have won the 100 freestyle earlier in the meet (bad coaching, I guess, not having him swim it in favor of the 200 IM!)...it also broke Mike Miao's ALL TIME PREP LEAGUE RECORD of :46.20 set in 1980 (28 years old) and the POLY SCHOOL RECORD of :46.45 set by Kresimir Peharda '86 back in 1985!
Nathan Min followed with a tired, but solid :50.71 leg (in hindsight, I should have had him go 3rd and give him an extra minute of rest)...Haynes Winkler swam another season best :52.73 leg and handed it off to Tommy Gilfillan who swam a spectacular :48.89 leg as our anchor - 1st timeunder :49! (and now officially faster than his coach was in his prime -many eons ago)...
The team time of 3:18.20 moved us up from 14th to 13th in the relay and was just a bit shy of the school and league records of 3:14.91 held by the quartet of William Van Der Touw, Duncan Hedges, Sam Lee and Tim Wang (the same quartet who held the medleyrelay record)...
Saturday was simply spectacular...Andrew Saeta set 4 All Time Prep League Records, 4 School Records, 1 CIF Division 2 record, made 3 All American cuts, won a CIF title and was 4-for-4 in personal best times...
Not too shabby for a day's work, eh?
The5 boys who swam this meet were amazing...it was the most exciting mee tfor us since the 2001 season when we saw Poly swimmers win 5 CIF titles en route to a 3rd place finish in the Division 3 meet...
Next up for the guys (and our 2 girl divers) is the CIF Masters meet on Tuesdayat Belmont Plaza...we are still waiting to get final word on who will participate, but rest assured, Poly will be well represented in the competition!
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