Swimming

Gunn HS Boys Win 2024 CIF-CCS Team Title as St. Ignatius Girls Earn Their 3rd-Straight Title

May 5, 2024

2024 CIF Central Coast Section Championships

May 2nd-4th, 2024 (Swimming)
Independence High School
San Jose, CA (PDT)
SCY (25y)
Meet Central
Psych Sheet
Section Meet Info
State Meet Info
Girls Prelims Recap
Boys Prelims Recap
- Defending Champs: St. Ignatius girls (2x) | Palo Alto boys (2x)
Results on Meet Mobile: “2024 CCS Swimming & Diving Championships”

The 2024 CIF-Central Coast Section (CIF-CCS) Championships have come to a close in San Jose, with less than a week away from the upcoming 2024 CIF State Swimming and Diving Championships. The St. Ignatius girls successfully defended their CCS team title, winning now their 3rd-consecutive section title by 63 points. In the chase for the runner-up crown, Palo Alto nipped Archbishop Mitty by only two points, 194 to 192. Meanwhile, Henry M. Gunn High School dominated the boys team rankings with a 26.5-point winning margin over Archbishop Mitty (192) and toppling the two-time defending boys CCS champions, Palo Alto (169.5).

Top Five Girls Team Scores

St. Ignatius- 257
Palo Alto- 194
Archbishop Mitty- 192
Castilleja- 167
Woodside- 117

Top Five Boys Team Scores

Henry M. Gunn- 218.5
Archbishop Mitty- 192
Palo Alto- 169.5
Los Altos- 140.5
Valley Christian- 131

One of the largest eye-popping moments of these championships came in the girls 200 IM final. After leading prelims, top seed Saratoga sophomore Kelsey Zhang was on her way to dominantly defending her section title. However, Zhang faced an abrupt disqualification that cost her both defending her 2023 title but also a personal best.

Zhang had clocked in a now-unofficial time of 1:57.69, which would have been 0.06s under the 2014 CCS record if she had not been DQ’d. Taking the official 2024 CCS title was Los Altos’ Maren Bryne, out-touching fellow freshman Mia Su of Archbishop by 0.08s, 2:01.49 to 2:01.57.

Saratoga head coach received intel from officials that Zhang had rotated past vertical following her initial underwater dolphin kicks during the free-to-free flipturn and breakout. According to USA Swimming’s 2024 rules and regulations, “Intermediate turns within each stroke shall conform to the turn rules for that stroke, except that in the freestyle turn, the swimmer must return to the breast before any kick or stroke.”

Below are two different angles of the turn that disqualified Zhang, where it is questionable if Zhang had been illegally rotated away from her front before initial dolphin kicks.

What do you think? DQ or not? https://t.co/GzxAXq2GBf

— Braden Keith (@Braden_Keith) May 4, 2024

Here’s another view of the turn.

It’s real close. If she’s past vertical, that’s a real ticky-tack call. pic.twitter.com/RKtsQXxtj0

— Braden Keith (@Braden_Keith) May 5, 2024

More Girls’ Finals Highlights

Powering the St. Ignatius girls to their third-straight section team title were their double relay event wins. They first won the 200 medley relay at 1:44.00, exactly 1.76s ahead of Archbishop (1:45.76). After settling for second behind Castilleja in the 200 free relay, 1:35.63 to 1:36.21, St. Ignatius got their revenge in the 400 free relay final. The quartet won at 3:28.75, exactly 1.75s ahead of Castilleja (3:30.50). Archbishop also snuck into third in the 400 free relay final at 3:31.83.

Less than an hour after her surprise DQ, Saratoga’s Kelsey Zhang came in hot to win the 100 fly final at 52.14, six-tenths faster than prelims. Zhang was both 0.06s over her personal best but also flirted with the 51.92 section record.

It was a battle of the seniors in the girls sprint free events, where Castilleja’s Olivia Detter finished her last CCS meet with two individual titles. Starting off in the 50 free, Detter (23.36) improved from third in 2023 to take the 2024 title. Los Gatos’ Karly Frangieh took second at 23.40, who also upset last year’s defending champion Audrey Chung of Woodside, placing third at 23.46. Doubling the distance into the 100 free final, both Detter (50.47) and Frangieh (50.63) repeated their 1-2 respective finishing places from the 50 free.

Another senior, St.Ignatius’ Caitlin Quill, bumped down Woodside’s Chung for third place by 0.01s, 51.63 to 51.64. Miss Quill later defended her 100 back section title at 55.35, six-tenths ahead of Castilleja sophomore Addison Finn, also breaking 56 seconds at 55.98.

Boys’ Finals Highlights

There was a subtle relay battle between Archbishop and Los Altos in both of the 200-yard relay event finals. In the 200 medley relay, Archbishop touched out Los Altos by 0.45s for the win, 1:32.32 to 1:32.77. Later on in the 200 free relay, Los Altos avenged Archbishop by two-tenths for that event title, 1:24.30 to 1:24.50. The Gunn boys sealed their team title later in the 400 free relay final at 3:06.39 following 3rd-place in the 200 free relay and 6th in the 200 medley relay.

Mountainview junior and Cal commit Dar Lavrenko successfully defended both of his prelims top seeds to sweep two 2024 sprint free event CCS titles. Lavrenko first tied his identical prelims time of 20.37 to win the 50 free final. Coming in 0.06s later for second was Bellarmine sophomore Tyler Porter at 20.43, taking 0.01s off his prelims swim. Lavrenko then did the job in the 100 free final to complete the sprint free sweep, clocking in at 44.53, a half second gain from prelims. King’s Academy sophomore Nathan Foucu was event runner-up at 45.13.

Archbishop freshman Shareef Elaydi had also walked away with two individual section titles. Elaydi first won the 200 IM with a 1:47.80, a 2.59s prelims drop and a 2-plus second winning margin over seniors Gunn’s Kelson Cantrell (1:49.96) and Aragon’s Gabriel Anagnoson (1:50.02). Into the 100 fly, Elaydi nearly broke 48 seconds with the top time of 48.06, more than a second over sophomore teammate Enzo Balbuena (49.33).

Woodside junior Seth Collet was another double event CCS champion. In the 200 free final, Collet narrowly took the event title with a time of 1:37.65. Settling for another second-place finish, also in the 1:37-range, was King’s Academy Foucu (1:37.99). Later on in the 100 back, Collet remained number one with a 48.86, ahead of the remaining sub-50 top three finishers Aragon senior Gabriel Anagnoson (49.67) and Gunn sophomore Nate Yoon (49.96). Archbishop’s Balbuena was also present in the final, placing fourth at 50.36.