Girls Varsity Swimming PAL Champions
San Mateo’s girls’ varsity swim team capped off their brilliant undefeated season last spring with the best win of them all, the PAL Championships.
In what turned out to be an exciting race to the finish, the Bearcat girls won the meet with 226 points, a close call of 7 points to second place El Camino’s 219. Even more surprising, the team accomplished this with only two first place finishes out of eleven total events.
The top three teams, San Mateo, El Camino, and Hillsdale, knotted very closely in the standings during event 45, the 400-yard freestyle, our girls’ third place finish over El Camino’s ninth made the difference.
San Mateo’s two golds were both courtesy of now-junior swimming sensation Julia Hansen, who, according to head coach Rich Farley, showed great spirit and leadership for the team. She won the 100-yard butterfly with a stunning 1:01.14 and the 100-yard breaststroke with a new PAL Ocean Division record of 1:09.99.
Topping her success off by earning the title “Swimmer of the Meet,” Julia was joined by now-senior Samantha Low and graduated senior Audrey Grimes to represent the Bearcats in the girls’ varsity first team. Juniors Louise Su, Briana Cerda, and Priscilla Law made the girls varsity second team.
The foursome of Julia, Audrey, Samantha and Louise had begun the meet with a pleasant surprise, qualifying for CSS in the 200-yard Individual Medley relay. “It was a good way to start the meet,” Julia said. “I thought we would get a season best. We exceeded our expectations for sure.”
San Mateo has always been one of the top schools in the girls’ varsity Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division, and they were finally able to the break El Camino’s championship winning streak and take the trophy home for themselves.
