Hillsdale boys, Half Moon Bay girls shine at PAL Ocean swimming finals

While the HMB girls didn’t earn any individual Central Coast Section cuts Saturday, the team earns the right to compete at the CCS Swimming & Diving Championships — swimming trials are set begin Friday at San Benito High School in Hollister — by virtue of the PAL team title.

“It’s huge,” HMB head coach Melina Gold said. “They’re super excited to win the championship and to make it to the CCS.”

HMB’s junior standouts

Junior standouts Zoe Chait and Maya Anwar didn’t swim for HMB last season. Anwar moved back to the Coastside prior to this season from Seattle, where her family relocated from Half Moon Bay when she was 5. Chait does independent study through Half Moon Bay High School, and only joined the swimming team this season after making a name for herself with the USA Junior National Surf Team.

Anwar put herself on the map Saturday, sprinting her way to four individual championships. She earned two relay championships, teaming with the all-junior team of Chait, Mirabelle Fischer and Sydney McGuirk for wins in the girls’ 200-yard medley relay (2 minutes, 1.46 seconds); and the 400 free relay (3:57.92). Anwar also earned titles with a convincing win in the 100 free (57.20); and, the highlight of her day, the 50 free in a personal record 25.86 seconds, out-touching Oceana sophomore Kelsni Cheng’s second-place time of 25.97.

“I just put my head down and threw my arm,” Anwar said.

Chait earned two PAL Ocean titles via the relay wins. Her most dramatic swim was the penultimate leg of the 200 IM relay, hammering away with the butterfly to put Anwar within striking distance. Anwar started the anchor leg in second place but passed Hillsdale just after the turn.

“[Chait] pulled a lot of time for us,” Anwar said. “It made it a lot easier.”

The surfing phenom also earned points for HMB with a third-place finish in the 100 fly (1:07.42), with Oceana sophomore Leslie Sanabria taking first place (1:01.95) and McGuirk taking second (1:06.17). In the 500 free, Chait took fourth place (6:01.46), with El Camino junior Gabby Li taking first place in 5:26.47.

“Whatever [Chait] touched, she scored points,” Gold said. “She was instrumental.”

The Cougars finished with 297 points, well ahead of defending champion Hillsdale’s second-place finish with 201. Westmoor took third place (160); Terra Nova fourth (140); El Camino fifth (129); Oceana sixth (123); Capuchino seventh (70); and Jefferson eighth (42).

Half Moon Bay also won the PAL dual meet championship with an undefeated 8-0 record in the regular season.

“I think we were all pretty confident going into it,” Anwar said. “I think we all tried really hard and wanted it.”

Hillsdale’s fantastic four

The Knights followed the same path as last year in repeating at the PAL Ocean Division boys’ swimming championships. Hillsdale came up short in the regular season both times, taking second place in the dual meet standings. This season, Hillsdale dropped its season opener to eventual dual-meet champion HMB.

“This year specifically, our dual meet against Half Moon Bay, it was our first dual meet, and we had a lot of boys out of town,” Hillsdale head coach Lesley Chiang said. “They were traveling for a club meet, so like half of our boys were out of town. … That was just enough to let Half Moon Bay eek out that win.”

But with the returning core four of senior Mateo Truong, juniors Ryan Musich and Josiah Yeager, and sophomore Aditya Tendulkar, the Knights had plenty of reason to be optimistic.

“It’s the same four boys, the top four … they’ve been the top swimmers on the team,” Chiang said. “And, luckily, they all swim different events. So, they really round out the roster.”

The optimism gave the foursome motivation to work on their celebration dances. Truong stole the show in this respect. After bringing home the title by swimming the anchor leg of the 200 free relay with a CCS cut 1:32.22, Truong went full-on air guitar with his celebration, sending water splashing two lanes across in either direction.

“We’ve been trying to do that all day,” Truong said. “It’s kind of been a competition with us, seeing who can have the best one. I think Musich’s in the 500 free was the best. I’ll gladly take home the silver after that splash.”

Musich claimed four individual titles with four CCS cuts, taking first place in the 500 free in 4:55.81; in the 200 IM in 1:56.54; and both relays, including the 200 medley in 1:41.08.

Yeager and Tendulkar finished 1-2 in the 100 free, with Yeager taking the title in 50.38 seconds, with Tendulkar in second at 51.65. Tendulkar also took second place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.60, with Westmoor sophomore Justin Ferrer taking the title with a CCS cut of 1:01.54.

Truong settled for three titles, claiming first place in the 100 fly with a CCS cut of 54.59. But perhaps his most spirited performance was in taking second place in the 100 back in 55.29 — El Camino junior Ashton Phan earned the title in 53.05 — with Truong competing in the race just 15 minutes following the animated celebration with his anchor leg in the 200 free relay.

“It was rough, man,” Truong said. “I had to anchor. The lineup wasn’t set until Josiah dove off the blocks. Me and Musich were kind of having a conversation about who would go last. The conversation ended on me, and I knew that warm down was going to be essential. So, I went through that because I kind of wanted to preserve my legs. I still struggled through it, but I got through it.”

The Hillsdale boys finished with a first-place score of 299; Half Moon Bay took second with 228; El Camino third with 196; Terra Nova fourth with 109; Capuchino fifth with 79; Oceana sixth with 68; Westmoor seventh with 65; and Jefferson eighth with 7.

Other girls’ winners

El Camino’s Calista Lynch earned three titles, with a PAL Ocean Division meet record in the 200 IM of 2:06.51; a CCS cut in the 100 back in 59.50; in the 200 free relay — with Lai, Alyssa Chui, Jolie Jumanan — in 1:53.35.

Lai earned three titles, including the 200 free relay, the 500 free, and the 200 free in 2:05.98.

Hillsdale sophomore Shreya Kashyap took the title in the 100 breast in 1:10.98.

Other boys’ winners

El Camino’s Phan took three titles, with wins in the 100 fly; in the 50 free with a CCS cut of 21.72 seconds, out-touching HMB senior Dedon Prince (21.73) by one one-hundredth of a second; and in the 400 free relay — with Jose Garcia, Adam Hu and Gabriel Hua — in 3:38.22.

Half Moon Bay junior Liam Wilson took first place in the 200 free by over nine seconds with a time of 1:53.70.