May 11, 2008

M-A doubles up on PAL titles

Bears earn first swimming

championships since '97

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

For a moment, it looked like Menlo-Atherton swim coach Tom McRae had gotten away.

Moments after the PA announcer had revealed that his Bears had taken both the girls and boys team titles on the final day of the PAL Swimming Championships, McRae looked like he might have been avoiding his celebratory splash.

But when he emerged for his post-meet interview, McRae was fittingly drenched.

"I'm been able to avoid this," McRae said, admitting to hiding in years past, "this year, unfortunately or fortunately, I guess it's the revenge for all those workouts; it's a bittersweet thing."

While the bath might have been bittersweet, the victory no doubt tasted great for the seventh-year coach. M-A's team win was the first for the school in either the boys or girls since 1997.

And in capturing the win, they held off rival Menlo School.

"It's nice for both teams; they worked really hard this year," McRae said.

"It's pretty much every day working hard," McRae said was the key to his team's overall success. "In terms of overall talent on the boys side was probably stronger than the girls side but (they) stepped up in practice to learn something new just rose together as a team. In the past we've had major horses that were all-Americans we didn't necessarily have that on the girls side especially but we really came together as a team," he said.

While the team titles belong to M-A, many individuals stepped up throughout the day.

Burlingame's Olivia Plume was the first individual varsity winner of the day. Her 1:54.90 in the 200 yard freestyle was almost ten seconds faster than the qualifying CCS time of 2:04.29. M-A scored big by finishing third and fourth with Sarah Winters and Vanessa Lane respectively.

"I was hoping for it," Plume said of her win. "I had a good race in me so I'm glad I did well. I wanted to make sure my third 50 was fast because I usually die in that and puff out the rest of the race. So I stayed strong through that and continued to my last 50. It's my last year so I want to win both my races," she said.

Not only did Plume win her next race, the 100 yard butterfly, but prior to it, she predicted a new record. Her time of 58.18 did just that, breaking the 2002 record set by Connie Nguyen of 58.47.

The distinction of the meet's fastest female went to Emily Chen of Aragon High. She defended her 2007 title in the 50 yard freestyle by winning in 24.37 and a couple of events later, took the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 54.07.

"(The 100) felt a lot better, a lot smoother," said a winded Chen. "This was a lot slower than last year, but it feels great defending my 50 free record and doing well."

Also breaking records on Saturday was Menlo's Andrew Kim. His 53.22 in the 100 yard backstroke took out a 2003 record of 53.82. But his most impressive race was in the 200 yard individual medley where his time of 2:01.40 was tops for the day. Kim led by about a body length after the backstroke and the butterfly but M-A's Richard Hong made up some considerable time on the breaststroke, getting within a second heading into the freestyle.

"My strategy is to go as hard as I can on the fly and the back and hold on," Kim said. "My breaststroke is my weakest stroke so I saw him right behind me so and on the 50 free I just gave it all I got." "I felt really nervous (going in), Richard is really good competition for me. He puts in a lot of work," Kim said.

M-A finished first in seven of the 22 individual races, including a pair of two-time winners.

Chris Kelvie won the 100 and 200 yard freestyles in addition to anchoring both the winning 200 and 400 yard relay teams.

"I felt really good," Kelvie said. "I didn't really expect that coming in here. I just wanted to race and get as many points for our team as possible. We're tapering for CCS so I didn't have any expectation other than trying to win. This whole year had been really exciting. The momentum has been building so as a team we really want to win this."

Quite possibly the surprise of the afternoon was Kelvie's teammate, Kei Masuda. Only a freshmen, the 14-year-old took the 100 yard butterfly but took the 500 yard freestyle after posting a slow time in trials.

But Masuda took the race in 4:50.79, beating a couple of favorites along the way.

"I went it that thinking I had to work hard to get it." Masuda said, admitting that he went out too far during trials, sporting a differential of almost 10 seconds in his 100s.

"I concentrated on swimming my own race. I paced my 500, which is probably a smart thing compared to my trials."

It was M-A's superior depth that led them to their first PAL meet title in 11 years.