It was all green and white at the City Section swim championships on Saturday at Valley College.
Granada Hills won both the boys and girls titles for the second straight year thanks to its overall depth and several standout individual efforts.
Junior Ryan Zheng defended his titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle events and anchored the victorious 4×50 and 4×100 freestyle relays. Senior Kenneth Devis won the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke for the third year in a row and led off the 4×100 freestyle relay as the Highlanders amassed 473 points to far outdistance runner-up Palisades.
Zheng clocked a personal-best 1 minute, 42.23 seconds in the 200 freestyle to beat teammate Kyle Lee, who finished second, by more than four seconds. In the 500 freestyle, Zheng clocked 4:42.33 to win easily while Christopher Goodman of Palisades (4:55.05) edged Lee (4:55.18) for second.
In one of the closest races of the day, Zheng held off a last-lap surge by Taft’s David Abarbanel to clinch the Highlanders’ 200 freestyle relay win by 65 hundredths of a second, posting a time of 1:29.12. In the final event, Zheng outdueled Cleveland sophomore Aleksander Fadipe to secure the Highlanders’ first-place finish in 3:16.79. The Cavaliers were second in 3:18.02 and Palisades was third in 3:32.44.
“Freestyle’s my specialty — that’s pretty much all I do,” Zheng said. “I’m really proud of us winning the 200 [relay]. That was the big one. As for the two individual events, hopefully next year will be my three-peater. Fingers crossed!”
Devis has dominated his two individual events since his sophomore year and on Saturday he won the breaststroke, his favorite event, in 56.35 seconds and the butterfly in a personal-best 49.59 seconds.
“My goal is to swim Division I in college,” said Devis, who competes for Rose Bowl Aquatics during the club season.
Also contributing to the boys’ win was senior Jean Darbo, who took first in the 100 backstroke in 51.91.
Taft’s Itay Goudz (47.94) edged top qualifier Riley Amis of Palisades in the 100 freestyle and clocked 22.37 for second behind Palisades’ Roi Levertov (21.96) in the 50 freestyle.
On the girls’ side, the Highlanders won their third straight crown and ninth overall, racking up 426 points to outscore runner-up Palisades (252), the team with whom they shared the title last spring.
Granada Hills won all three relays and sophomore Isabella San Jose won the 200 individual medley in 2:08.62 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.69, then anchored the 4×100 freestyle relay. Her senior sister, Ava, swam the second leg in the 4×50 freestyle relay and the third leg in the 400. Freshman Meygen Flores picked up valuable points by placing third in the 200 freestyle in 1:58.21 and winning the 100 butterfly in 57.75.
GALA’s Jordyn Hale won the 50 freestyle in 24 seconds flat and finished second behind Iris Paek of LACES (52.93) in the 100 freestyle in 53.57.
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