2009 Section Challenge

In what has become a showcase of the Bay Area's fastest swimmers, the Palo Alto Girls claimed victory in the 2009 Palo Alto Section Challenge. The girls finished a half of a point ahead of last years NCS Champions Campolindo High School. The boys finished a strong 3rd against last years NCS Champions Campolindo and CCS Champions Bellarmine High Schoo.


The Lady Vike's were led in this exciting meet by Jasmine Tosky. Jasmine set a school record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:03.64. She came back to place 3rd in the 500 Freestyle with a time of 5:00.92. Sarah Liang helped the cause in the 200 IM by placing 5th at 2:07.36. Senior Allie Bollella swam strong in the sprint events by placing 3rd in the 50 Freestyle at 24.78 and 7th in the 100 Freestyle at 54.39. Sabrina Lee also scored in two events, placing 9th in the 100 Freestyle at 54.85 and 9th in the 100 Backstroke at 1:00.47. Abby Duckett placed 9th in the 200 Freestyle at 1:59.82 and then produced again in the 500 Freestyle placing 9th at 5:14.64. Laura Cui swam a strong 100 Breaststroke placing 6th at 1:09.60. Gracie Greenwood placed second in the diving with a score of 407.85 and Noa Palmon placed third with a score of 379.10. The girls relays were strong with the Medley Relay(Devine, Liang, Wenzlau, Tosky) placing 3rd at 1:50.49. The 200 Free Relay (Bollella, Devine, Lee, Tosky) placed second at 1:39.12 and the 400 Free Relay (Bollella, Duckett, Wenzlau, Lee) placed 6th with at time of 3:38.40. The meet came down to the last relay and the girls did a great job of swimming smart and strong to claim Palo Altos first victory in their own meet.


The Viking boys were led by Mark Higgins who was the only Viking swimmer with two victories. Mark won the 200 Freestyle in a time of 1:42.13 and the 100 Freestyle in a time of 47.13. Tim Wenzlau recorded a victory in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 53.49 and a 3rd in the 50 Freestyle with a time of 22.32. Byron Sanborn helped the cause in the 200 IM finishing 5th at 2:02.50 and in the 100 Breaststroke finishing 6th at 1:01.59. Freshman Rollin Lau finished 9th in the 200 IM at 2:06.59. Helping matters in the diving competition were Joseph Salvasan who placed 2nd with a score of 311.10, Jordan Zenger who placed 3rd at 287.25 and Justin Choi who placed 3rd at 219.70. Also scoring points was Bobby Abbott in the 200 Free with at time of 1:51.94 and the 500 Freestyle with a time of 5:08.44. The boys 200 Medley Relay (Wenzlau, Sanborn, Schubert, Higgins) placed 5th at 1:41.30. The 200 Free Relay (Higgins, Schubert, Kotov, Nakamura) placed 6th at 1:32.46. The 400 Free Relay (Abbott, Wenzlau, Kotov, Sanborn) finished in 6th with a time of 3:23.46. The boys showed well and swam strong and looked good.


The meet was a great success with 11 schools participating, mostly from the Bay Area but from as far away as Southern California. 241 swimmers entered the water for competition. The level of competition was very high for both the boys and girls divisions.


Both the boys and girls will swim at home against Homestead next Friday at 3:30 at Palo Alto. Come out and cheer them on as we also say goodbye to our senior class.