Girls’ Swimmer of the Year: HMB’s Grace Anderson

“It doesn’t even feel real yet that I’m leaving because I’ve been here my whole life,” Anderson said. “I guess just the community and the friends I’ve had my whole life … I’ll definitely miss all that — and the ocean.”

With Anderson’s departure comes the end of one of the great swimming quartets in Peninsula Athletic League swimming history. This season, the four juniors — Anderson, Mia Griffiths, Eve Kearns and Riley Rhodes — achieved a three-peat as PAL Ocean Division champions in the girls’ 200-yard medley relay.

Comparing the loss of Anderson to John Lennon’s breaking up the Beatles may seem like a stretch. In terms of Half Moon Bay swimming, though, her departure no doubt feels as catastrophic. Having such a tight-knit quartet is a rare commodity, one that saw Anderson, Griffiths, Kearns and Rhodes commonly referred to as the fab four.

“I would say that’s fairly unique,” Half Moon Bay head coach Lauren Baeder said. “When something like that comes along, that’s really special. I think all four of them have grown up together … so when the four of them can come together and perform for their school, that’s a really special thing.”

What makes Anderson stand out as the Daily Journal Girls’ Swimmer of the Year, though, was she didn’t stop there. She earned three gold medals at the Ocean Division meet. After swimming the breaststroke on the relay team — because she was the best of the four in the discipline — she returned to her specialty freestyle event to top the podium in the 50 free. She also took gold in the 100 butterfly.

“She was one that was always up for whatever I needed her to do,” Baeder said, “and those were the spots where we just needed her … to score points there.”

She also etched her name into meet history, and all over the place at that. Each of her three gold medals led to Ocean Division meet records. Her time of 24 seconds flat in the 50 free topped the previous mark of 24.72, set by Daphne Young of South City in 2007. And her time of 56.73 in the 100 fly blew the previous record of 1:00.52 out of the water.

And the fab four would have set the meet record in the finals with a time of 1:53.79 — the previous mark of 1:54.70 in 2015 by San Mateo — had they not already crushed it in the preliminaries the previous day with a time of 1:52.05.

“It will be sad (to leave) because we’re definitely all a package,” Anderson said. “But I’m sure they’ll find somebody fast and hopefully someone just as good.”

That would really be something, considering Anderson was the only Cougars swimmer to continue her excellence into the Central Coast Section Championships. The 200 medley relay team scored a moral victory, bettering their time from the Ocean Division meet, but settled for 12th place overall with a time of 1:50.77 in the “B” final.

In her individual events, Anderson returned to her wheelhouse, competing in the 50 and 100 free. Not only did she qualify for the CIF State Championships in both events, she earned All-American consideration in each, with selections to be made later this month.

Facing the competitive field in CCS was new territory for Anderson, at least in terms of her Half Moon Bay career. Sure, she’s had plenty of experience dueling in close races throughout her club swimming seasons with Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics. During three varsity seasons in the PAL Ocean Division, however, Anderson is accustomed to plenty of distance between her pace-setting times and the rest of the pack.

In taking third place in the 50 free, Anderson said she knew, going into the finals, the top of the podium was a far stretch. That’s because she swims with gold medalist Brooke Schaffer out of St. Francis-Mountain at PASA. Schaffer won with a time of 22.92, with Soquel’s Kailyn Winter taking silver at 23.14.

For Anderson, though, her bronze-medal time of 23.40 not only put her on the podium, it was a new personal record for the kid from the coastside.

“It definitely was a good race for me,” Anderson said. “I felt like I kind of had a rhythm going. When I hit the wall, I feel like that’s a good time. But I feel like, when it’s a competitive race, I guess I don’t know what to expect … so it was kind of a wild card, I guess.”

Anderson also took fourth in the 100 free with a time of 50.36, achieving a goal she set for herself at the outset of the season.

“I can make states, I already knew that,” Anderson said. “But I just wanted to have that chance to make top five. So, it was cool having that opportunity … and it was really humbling to be up on the podium.”