Palisadians are encouraged to participate in Palisades Volunteer Days, a one-week period from May 7 to 15 in which there will be many opportunities for a variety of service hours. Participants and the nonprofit activities they participate in will be listed in the Palisadian-Post before the week of good works. Spearheaded by longtime Palisadian Marie Steckmest, Palisades Volunteer Days will give Palisadians an opportunity to join together to serve others in the Palisades and in the larger Los Angeles community. Participants will receive a T-shirt with logo designed by local artist John Robertson. Residents are encouraged to volunteer with friends, classmates, business colleagues, or fellow church or temple members. This event is nondenominational and not intended to cost anything but time, said Steckmest, who organized a Christmas donation drive for several social service organizations in the city. Volunteer activities include helping with the Special Olympics track and field/tennis/boca ball day at Brentwood School, a community-wide bake sale, a beach clean-up, a day of beauty for homeless women, knitting caps and blankets, and a tennis clinic in South Los Angeles. Palisadians are encouraged to offer their own expertise as well, such as cooking, baking, singing, gardening, hair-cutting, acting and playing sports. Nonprofit volunteer opportunities are in the planning stages. For those who wish to volunteer, or have a nonprofit volunteer opportunity, e-mail Marie Steckmest at PalisadesCares@aol.com.
‘The Night of the Black Cat’ Purrs, Growls and Stalks
With the rain beating fiercely against the tin roof of the Edgemar Arts Center Saturday night, we guests loved the wild, wild night inside the Le Chat Noir. Based on the original Le Chat Noir, which opened in the Montmartre district of Paris in 1881, Edgemar’s fun-filled musical ‘The Night of the Black Cat’ is similar in many ways, offering forbidden poetry, passionate dancing and sensual music. The cast members were given a character from the late1800s to research and then were asked to come up with their own story ideas that were presented to director Deborah La Vine. The frame story features Mademoiselle Germaine De Stael (Michelle Danner), one of France’s most distinct political and romantic voices and a huge benefactor of the arts, who now finds herself the nemesis of the city fathers, who condemn those who enjoy ‘pure hedonism, debauchery and social corruption.’ The performance space has been miraculously transformed into a cellar cafe, complete with intimate tables and chairs. On stage, piano player (Glenn Sidwell), trumpet player (Sebastian Leger), harmonica/accordion player (Smokey Miles) and violinst Joe Spangler enhance and enliven the singing, dancing and stage play. The entertainment moves from torch songs to can-cans to seductive tangos, all performed by an expert cast. While the program appears to flow loosely and spontaneously from act to act, this theatrical piece shows all the hallmarks of fine direction, clever set design, efficient choreography and traffic control. So many people come and go from the small performance space, it’s remarkable. Some highlights include the song dedicated to Picasso, ‘Picasso Blues,’ featuring ‘I got the blues, period,’ chorus and sung to a honky-tonk cadence with images of Picasso’s work projected on the scrim upstage. So many songs brought out the audience’s spontaneity, many clapped to the tunes, while others quietly mouthed the words to standards such as ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘La Vie En Rose.’ The show continues February 25 and 26 (with special guest the father of funk George Clinton), and Friday and Saturday nights in March at 7:30 p.m. at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St. For tickets ($22.50, $18.50) contact 392-7327.
Bringing Art History to the Classroom
While art-starved L.A. Unified School District classrooms are the recipient of various cultural enrichment programs, few if any focus entirely on art history. Change is under way, though, thanks to the grassroots efforts of two determined women. Two years ago, Laurie MacMurray, a docent at the L.A. County Museum of Art and a resident of Sunset Mesa, established ‘Arts Matter’ with Essie Horwitz, a fellow LACMA docent who lives in Rustic Canyon. They bring important credentials to the task of providing art history programs to elementary schools. MacMurray, who is also a docent at the Norton Simon Museum, worked in marketing and business for 20 years, while Horwitz has 18 years’ experience teaching for LAUSD. As longtime museum educators, both were frustrated by the ever-growing number of students they encountered on their museum tours who had absolutely no prior exposure to art. They knocked on the doors of elementary-school heads with their proposal and were greeted with open arms, first at Braddock Drive in Culver City and now at Westminster in Venice. The in-classroom program, geared to kids in third, fourth, and fifth grades, introduces artists from a variety of time periods and genres in a series of one-hour sessions taking place over six weeks. Armed with reproductions of art mounted on large poster board, the docents present fast-paced, interactive lessons that teach students how to identify the elements of art, provide facts about an artist’s life and a glossary. The students, most of whom speak English as their second language, also create a relevant art project. Arts Matter supplies all the materials, including a teacher packet with suggestions on how to connect the lesson with language arts and history. At Westminster School, a recent session MacMurray taught in a fifth grade classroom focused on Van Gogh. Others artists spotlighted are Brueghel, Vermeer, Matisse, Picasso, Rivera, and American artists Bingham and Remington. ‘The enthusiasm is huge,’ says teacher Tara Burgess. ‘I can hear the hum before Laurie arrives.’ The hum is followed by quiet, with kids attentively posed for MacMurray’s opening question: ‘Who knows Van Gogh?’ Hands shoot up, and one student eagerly shares a bit of the artist’s famous biography. ‘He cut part of his ear off.’ This leads into a discussion of emotions, and how Van Gogh expressed his with the use of color. ‘I’d use the blackest black I could find,’ says one student in response to the question of how he would express anger. MacMurray has the kids imagine what they would see while lying down outside at night and looking up at the sky. Then she holds up a big reproduction of ‘Starry Night’ to audible gasps of delight. Pieces of black construction paper and pastels are distributed for students to experiment with creating their own version of ‘Starry Night.’ The eventual goal is to establish a bus fund to allow students to visit a museum as the culmination of their in-class studies. Arts Matter, with nonprofit status as a 501(c)3, is making strides toward that, recently receiving a $15,000 grant from the Ahmanson Foundation. ‘Our vision is to have the program operating in every third, fourth and fifth grade classroom in these schools and expanding into other schools,’ says MacMurray, who is eager to begin recruiting new volunteers to fulfill this mission. Currently, the two founders work with only one other volunteer, Palisadian Sandra Alarcon, a fellow LACMA docent. The three will have taught more than 350 kids this year by the end of May. ‘We know arts education is linked to better cognitive skills,’ says MacMurray, who sees Arts Matter’s objective as fostering critical thinking and better language skills in addition to developing a basic understanding of art. ‘I feel sure we are having an impact.’ To learn more about Arts Matter, including how to become a volunteer, send an e-mail to MacMurray at laurie@artsmatter.org.
Photos, Words & Memories
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Palisadian Chris Martinez is a scrapbooking therapist, gently guiding people through the process of sorting and organizing their backlogged family photos. Martinez holds scrapbooking workshops in her home three times a month, where people can organize their photos, put them in albums, decorate the pages, and write journal entries about family trips, babies and kids’ school days, weddings and their family history. Through Creative Memories, a Minnesota-based company which sells scrapbooking supplies through a sales force of 90,000 consultants, Martinez sells all the items one needs to get started. But she does much more than that. She also provides a comfortable, nurturing setting where people can chat and form friendships while they tackle years of family snapshots, that have been saved in boxes and envelopes. In most cases, women are the family archivists. But some of the women who are determined to make albums for their own family say their mother never did anything with their own childhood photos. ‘My mom put everything in a box and never organized it. I had to go back and organize hers,’ said Martinez, who has made over 30 albums, including a heritage album where she pasted photos of older generations and wrote family stories she wanted her children to know. ‘I want my kids to have more than pictures, I want them to have histories,’ One common problem, she admits, is having trouble identifying some of the relatives in older pictures. Palisadian Corrine Bourdeau realized how important organizing her pictures was when her 7-year-old daughter Dominique needed to do a project about her ancestors at school, and it took months to get related photos. ‘Someday, her kids will just pull out an album,’ said Bourdeau, who spent a recent morning at a workshop in Martinez’s home, sorting through and editing photos of her two daughters. She filed the remaining photos in a photo-safe sorting box, already organized for a future scrapbook. ‘If you make an appointment to come here, you know you have the time set aside,’ said Jill Tabit, who was working on a scrapbook of a family vacation to Ireland. The social aspect of the workshop is also important. ‘I don’t do many creative things with other women, so I love this,’ said Bev Nuder, who was working on a book of her families’ many years of vacations in Sequoia National Park. ‘I feel very pampered.’ Martinez tries to create that environment for the people who attend her workshops. ‘I want them to bring their stuff and relax.’ She helps as needed and is well-stocked with items for sale, but the approach is low pressure. ‘When I first started doing this, I thought about what I would want done for me. I would want to really be taken care of.’ In fact, several of the attendees raved about Martinez’s homemade lunches, many of which are recipes from Cooking Light magazine, which are included in the price of a daytime workshop. An important element of scrapbooking products is that they are acid-free, so as best to preserve the pictures. Prices range from $36 for 12 x 12 albums, $19 for a photo trimmer, $10 for pens, and $1 for stickers on a variety of themes, such as holidays, babies, sports and travel. Lisa Scott, who has been scrapbooking since she was a teenager, was working on pages for her 2-year-old Savannah’s baby album. One feature of scrapbooks is they allow for papers and memorabilia as well as photos to be mounted within their pages. Savannah’s book began with a birth certificate and picture of a clock taken later to reflect the time of her birth. More recent pages included ‘Your first time at Disneyland’ written out with stick-on letters. Scott is an avid scrapbooker who recently went on a weekend trip to Big Bear to do scrapbooking, and who even has a portable luggage cart to tote her scrapbooking supplies. Recently, Martinez helped fellow Palisadian Virginia Mitchner organize some photos dating from 1980, not an easy task for a woman with a dozen grandchildren. ‘The different years were all mixed up. I felt overwhelmed, but Chris helped me get organized,’ said Mitchner, who finds scrapbooking relaxing. Martinez, one of several Creative Memories consultants in the Palisades, began scrapbooking when her 7-year-old daughter Annie was one. Five years ago, the consultant whom she had been buying materials from moved away and she decided to fill in the gap. Danny Gonzales, the manager at Village Photo & Digital Imaging, has noticed that in recent months, a number of local moms are coming in to scan photos and organize reprints. ‘It seems like moms were in charge of photography but once digital hit, dads would download the pictures into the computer,’ Gonzales observed. ‘The moms are coming in and saying, ‘I want my pictures back, they’re in the computer, nobody looks at them.’ They want to physically hold the photos.’ About half of her regular scrapbookers have moved into using digital cameras, said Martinez, who e-mails her digital photos to Village Photo to make prints. The steps that add up to a scrapbook start with sorting and editing photos; then cutting them to various sizes, if desired; laying them out; sticking them to the pages with double-sided tape or clear corners; decorating the page with stickers and paper; and writing captions and journaling. Pages can be simple or elaborate, and Martinez said a ‘plain and simple’ album can be done for $50. With its growing popularity, scrapbooking supplies can be found everywhere, from supermarkets and drug stores to specialty stores and stationery stores such as Black Ink on Swarthmore. ‘We can’t keep our 12 x 12 albums (which are covered in leather or fabric) in stock,’ said owner Patti Black. ‘People use them for celebrations, telling a little story for guestbooks. For people having a big party, they’ll send a scrapbook page to all the guests, who will each fill one out for the guest of honor.’ Despite assisting scrapbookers who come in to make prints on her digital machine, Cathy Martinez of Harrington’s Camera has not latched onto the scrapbook phenomenon herself. Cathy keeps up to date on her own photos by editing them heavily, throwing away what she doesn’t want and putting the rest in traditional photo albums. Chris Martinez has not only completed her own family albums, but has created scrapbooks for retiring clergy at her church, Corpus Christi. She is now going backwards: having recently completed the baby album for her 22-year-old son, she is completing the baby album for her 19-year-old daughter, and then will do a scrapbook for her own wedding (24 years ago) to her husband Albino, the owner of Albino Construction. Upcoming Creative Memories workshops/classes will take place on Thursday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 16 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for $15 (including lunch) and a ‘late-night workshop’ Friday, March 18 from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. for $10. Call 459-7705 for reservations.
Pali Soccer Wins
The Palisades High boys varsity soccer team had lost in the first round of the playoffs 11 times in 12 years, but Christian Sanchez made sure the trend would not continue when he scored off of a throw-in by Patrick McCormick in the 66th minute to lift the 18th-seeded Dolphins to a 1-0 victory at 15th-seeded Los Angeles. Palisades (6-2-2) traveled to second-seeded San Fernando for a quarterfinal game yesterday. If victorious, Pali would advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinals. Girls In a sloppy and slippery game at rain-drenched Stadium by the Sea, Alex Michael scored on a penalty kick in the 25th minute as the PaliHi women’s varsity team beat Cleveland in the opening round of the City playoffs and advanced to the championship bracket. ‘I said to myself I’m going to bury it and I basically just passed the ball it into the net,’ Michael said. ‘I love playing in the rain. We just ignored it and played our game. If anything, it cooled us down a bit.’ The 10th-seeded Dolphins (9-7-1) played Western League rival Fairfax on Tuesday and, if victorious, will either host 18th-seeded Kennedy or travel to second-seeded Narbonne today.
Nature Takes Its Course
What is it about rain at the Nissan Open? Three of the last four years have produced at least one rain delay and Monday’s cancellation of the third round produced the first PGA Tour event reduced to 36 holes since the 1996 Buick Challenge. However, tournament director and PGA Rules Official Mark Russell offered no indication that the date of the Nissan will be changed next year because it would mean having to alter the entire Tour schedule, saying: ‘I just don’t picture a scenario where that would happen.’ The bigger question is whether Russell decided to cancel the third round too soon. Minutes after Adam Scott and Chad Campbell had finished their anti-climactic playoff and Scott picked up his ‘unofficial’ victor, the clouds lifted and blue skies appeared over Riviera Country Club. As it turned out, the incoming storm that was supposed to arrive early that afternoon never came. Given the amount of water the course had absorbed, however, and the three to four hours that would have been needed to prepare it for play, it’s safe to say officials made the right call. No one could have imagined mother nature would play such a dirty trick. Bob Lowe, the calligrapher responsible for updating the master scoreboard in the press tent, tried to give disgruntled reporters and restless event staff bit of comic relief. When Jon Reigger quit the event after carding a first-round 75, Lowe wrote ‘withdrew… ‘aqua phobic’ after his name. Lowe cited ‘nonswimmer’ as the reason for Jonathan Kaye’s similar surrender. For the players who remained, the event became an exercise in futility. When it was determined that a playoff between the co-leaders would be played Monday to determine the winner, Riviera’s famous 18th hole was chosen not for it’s difficulty, but for a practical reason. ‘We didn’t necessarily have to choose the 18th hole for the playoff,’ said Dave Lancer, Director of Information for the PGA Tour. ‘We picked that hole because there were no bunkers in play for our guys and it’s the highest point of land on the property.’ To the grounds crew’s relief, the event did not extend to a second playoff hole, though Campbell wishes it would have. The difference between his runner-up check and the one Scott received was $350,000. That equates to $10,000 for every inch Scott’s winning putt traveled on its way to the cup. Campbell was almost apologetic afterwards, even thanking the media for staying to the end. It was he who summed up the tournament best: ‘We were at the mercy of the weather this week.’
Scott Beats Rain at Riviera
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The most compelling story surrounding last week’s Nissan Open had nothing to do with the leaderboard, but rather whether the hallowed greens and fairways at Riviera Country Club could hold up under four days of driving rain. After two rounds, 19 golfers were within four shots of co-leaders Adam Scott and Chad Campbell, who were both 9-under par. It appeared to be anyone’s tournament to win with two rounds left. But when continued thunder showers saturated the course beyond playability, the event was cancelled early Monday morning. Sure, Scott beat Campbell on the first playoff hole and was presented with the tournament trophy, but because only 36 holes were completed, he was not credited with an official victory. And in the press tent afterwards, he admitted he didn’t even feel like the winner. ‘It’s nice to have the trophy and I will be called the champion but it does feel different,’ said the 24-year-old Australian, who hails from Hope Island, Australia. ‘I don’t feel tired and drained like you normally do when it’s finally over and you have been battling some guy for the last 36 holes or something. It’s unfortunate circumstances, but there has to be a winner, I guess.’ Two hours after the third round was cancelled, the two co-leaders met at the 18th tee for a playoff to determine who would be declared the unofficial winner. Scott hooked his drive into the rough while Campbell’s ball landed smack in the middle of the fairway, giving him the early advantage. But Scott’s second shot from 242 yards out left him good position just off the green while his opponent hit into the sparse crowd assembled just off the green. Scott’s chip landed three feet below the pin while Campbell’s attempt rolled to a stop four feet above the pin. Now, both players were faced with short par putts. ‘There’s been a lot of waiting and killing time,’ said Scott, who moved up to No. 7 in the world rankings. ‘It was a tough break for Chad because he hasn’t hit a shot in two days where I got to play a little bit everyday. So maybe that was better for me. But a playoff is unpredictable.’ Campbell putted first and his attempt looked true but veered left at the last instant, rolling off the edge of the cup and stopping three feet to the right of the hole. Scott took a few moments to line up his own shot and drained it, giving a half-hearted wave of acknowledgement to his opponent and the spectators. ‘I’m definitely disappointed,’ said Campbell, a 30-year-old from Lewisville, Texas. ‘Whether it’s official or not, I don’t like losing. I would have liked to continue the tournament. I think everybody would have at least liked to get 54 holes in, but it’s just not possible. The course can’t take this much rain. No course can.’ Darren Clarke and Brian Davis finished tied for second at 8-under, Colin Montgomerie and J.L. Lewis were 7-under and six players were at 6-under through 36 holes. Tiger Woods, looking to regain the No. 1 ranking he lost last year, needed to finish fourth or higher to overtake Vijay Singh, who decided to skip the Nissan Open. Woods was in striking distance after two rounds’only four shots back’but he would’ve been closer if he hadn’t double-bogeyed the 18th hole Sunday morning. In 78 previous years at the Nissan Open, only once was the tournament shortened due to inclement weather. That was in 1993 when Tom Kite won by three strokes in a 54-hole event. Mike Weir, who won the previous two events, finished tied for 37th at 2-under-par. Little did he know it then, but Scott would not even have forced a playoff had he not made a 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole Sunday morning that pulled him even with Campbell after two rounds. ‘That was a big putt. We all knew that the weather report wasn’t looking good for Monday. So I thought that might be it and it was nice to knock that one in for sure, just to give me the chance.’
Schoops Ranked No. 1 in Father-Son Doubles
Ernie Schoop and his son, Chris, were ranked No. 1 in 2004 in the United States Tennis Association’s Senior Father & Son Division. The Palisadian pair played four tournaments on four different surfaces, reaching the finals of the National Indoors in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, finishing fifth at the National Hardcourts in Newport Beach, finishing fourth at the National Grass Courts in Locust Valley, New York, and finishing fifth at the National Clay Court championships in Sarasota, Florida. ‘We were actually shocked that we were ranked No. 1 because we didn’t win one tournament all year,’ Chris said. ‘Also, we’d lost to five teams ranked below us. We assume that the rankings are now decided by the number of points you accumulate in each tournament. Based on that, we played all four tournaments and did consistently well in each one, so we had more points than any other team at year’s end.’ The last time the Schoops were ranked atop their division was in 1996, when they won both the National Hardcourts and National Grass Court titles. ‘In a way, we feel bad that we are ranked above the teams that had direct wins over us,’ Chris added. ‘I think what the USTA is trying to do is encourage people to play more tournaments by basing it only on points accumulated.’ The younger Schoop said would be their last year in the Senior Father and Son Division (where the father has to be 60 or over). Next year, they will move up to the Super Senior Father and Son, where the father has to be 70 or older. ‘We are looking forward to that because the teams in our current division seem to get stronger and younger every year,’ Chris said. ‘It’ll be nice to finally be the new ‘younger guys’ in our division.’
Rec Center Report
Palisades Recreation Center will host a Basketball Skills Challenge this Saturday and Sunday for boys and girls ages 5-15. The event is open to all players, whether they played in the Palisades Basketball League or not. Every participant will receive a medal and event winners will get a trophy. Players can compete in all the contests or just one. Rookie Division (open to players born in 1998-99) contests will begin on Saturday at 10 a.m., Bantam Division (born 1996-97) contests will begin on Saturday at noon, Minor Division (born 1994-95) contests will begin Saturday at 3 p.m., Major Division (born 1992-93) contests will begin Sunday at noon and Junior Division (born 1989-91) will begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. Contests are as follows: NBA 2-Ball: Each team of two has one minute to score as many baskets as possible from any of the designated shooting spots; 3-Point Contest: Players have one minute to make as many three-point baskets as possible. Top scorers advance to the next round; Free Throw Contest: Players shoot 10 free throws, with top scorers advancing to the next round; 2-on-2: Half-court games in a double-elimination format. No games in rookie division; Slam Dunk Contest: Junior Division only. Players receive scores from judges based on the difficulty and quality of their dunks on 8-foot baskets. Top scores advance. For more information, call Rec Center Director David Gadelha: 454-1412. East Wins All-Star Game The Palisades Recreation Center held its interleague Minors All-Star basktball game last week, with the beasts of the East edging the best of the West, 60-57. Kahlil Simplis scored 22 points, Alden Cusick had 19 and Brian Lewis added eight for the East, which raced to a 17-2 lead in the first quarter. Christopher Murch had 17 points, Austin Kamel had 16 and Kyle Warner added nine for the West, which responded with a 17-6 run in the second quarter to pull within 23-19 at halftime. The game was tied, 38-38, going into the fourth quarter. Henry Elkus, Dylan Klumph, Tommy Sanford and Orson Wetterberg rounded out the East all-stars while Willy Gansa, Leo Abbe-Schneider, Jack Ramsey and Chris Sebastian also contributed for the West.
Paly Swimmers 3rd at South Gate Meet
The Palisades-Malibu YMCA swim team, under the guidance of coaches Kameron Kennedy, Eric Butler and Nick Stankovich, finished in third-place at last week’s Y Meet at South Gate Sports Center. With a contingent of 77 swimmers, Paly had several swimmers compete in older age groups. Twelve-year-old Jennifer Tartavull moved up to join older swimmers Alison Piazza, Hannah Haberfield and Erica Drennan to fill the Dolphins’ 15-and-under relay team, which finished second. Drennan had an outstanding meet with first-place swims in the 200 Freestyle (2:08.21), 100 Butterfly (1:10.01), 200 Backstroke (2:25.37), 200 Individual Medley (2:31.35) and 100 Backstroke (1:06.28), a second-place in the 100 Freestyle and a fourth in the 50 Freestyle. Haberfield placed in five events, her best a fifth-place finish in the 200 Individual Medley. Piazza also placed in five events, finishing sixth in both the 200 Individual Medley and 100 Backstroke. The 13 & 14-year-old boys had two excellent relays, taking second in the Medley Relay (Colin Magana, James deMayo, Nick Karody, and Ben Lewenstein) and third in the Freestyle Relay (Nick Barnett, Jeremy Ratib, Lewenstein, and Karody). Alex Fujinaka won the 200 Freestyle (2:04.95) and was runner-up in the 50 Freestyle. Karody captured third in the 100 Breaststroke and fifth in the 100 Backstroke. Jerad Brown went from a 1:49.38 in the Butterfly to 1:26.56. The 11 & 12-year-old girls won both the Freestyle Relay (Alexandra Edel, Allison Merz, Jennifer Tartavull, and Haley Lemoine) and the Medley relay (Shelby Pascoe, Edel, Merz, and Lemoine). Edel once again had a superb meet, winning the 200 Freestyle (2:09.26), 50 Breaststroke (35.40), 50 Freestyle (27.65), 200 Individual Medley (2:26.68) and 50 Backstroke (32.66), as well as placing second in the 100 Butterfly, 100 Freestyle and 100 Breaststroke. Merz placed second in the 200 Freestyle and 50 Butterfly and third in the 100 Freestyle and 200 Individual Medley. Tartavull won the 100 Breaststroke, took second in the 50 Breaststroke and took third in the 200 Freestyle and 50 Freestyle. Lemoine was fourth in the 50 Breaststroke, 100 Freestyle and 200 Individual Medley, as well as fifth in the 100 Butterfly. Pascoe was fourth in the 100 Backstroke and the 50 Backstroke and fifth in the 200 Freestyle. Danny Fujinaka led the 11 & 12-year-old boys with three firsts in the 200 Individual Medley (2:28.69), the 100 Freestyle (100.04) and the 50 Breaststroke (36.28), as well as second in the 100 Butterfly. The boys’ Freestyle Relay (Fujinaka, Kevin Carswell, Stephen Anthony, Yanov Slava) took second and the Medley relay (Matthew Piazza, Stephen Anthony, Jacob Defilippis, and Tommy Collins) took sixth. Placing high enough to score points for the team in individual events were Yanov, Anthony, Carswell, Defilippis, Joey Oetzell, Piazza, and Tiago Santa-Clara. Paly’s youngest swimmers continue to work on refining strokes, which will eventually lead to even faster times. The girls’ 10-and-under Freestyle Relay (Catherine Wang, Olivia Kirkpatrick, Mara Silka, and Courtney Carswell) took third as did the Medley Relay (Wang, Kirkpatrick Josephine Kremer, and Adelaide Seaman). Wang took first in the 100 Freestyle (1:03.54), 200 Freestyle (2:18.78) and 50 Butterfly (32.30). She also took second in the 200 Individual Medley and 50 Freestyle. Wang was third in the 50 Breaststroke and fourth in the 50 Backstroke while Carswell won the 25 Freestyle (16.83), took second in both the 100 Individual Medley and 25 Backstroke, took third in the 25 Butterfly and 50 Freestyle, and took fourth in the 25 Breaststroke. Alexander Landau, 8, took third in the 25 Butterfly and fourth in the 100 Individual Medley. Nicolas Green was fifth in the 50 Freestyle. Y Champs are February 28-29 at the Commerce Natatorium. Coach Kennedy is looking for more broken records: ‘I expect times to fall even further. The kids are motivated and putting the time in necessary to make it happen.’ Special swim clinics are being held at the Y on weekends but space is limited.
