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.