Varsity swim conquers League Finals

Varsity swim remains undefeated at the Hacienda League finals, with girls varsity placing first overall and boys varsity placing second overall on Friday, April 28 at Diamond Bar High School.

Freshman Angelica Mom placed first in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke event. She was voted  the Hacienda League MVP and made five individual automatic California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) qualifications.

“I think a lot of this success comes from having the motivation and [support] from my team,” Mom said. “I wasn’t doing this just for myself but I was also doing it for our girls’ varsity team. It was the [mindset] of coming in knowing we were undefeated and we’re going to get league champs.”

Several other swimmers also achieved high rankings in the Hacienda League Finals. Sophomore Esther Chang placed first in the 200-yard freestyle and second in the 500-yard freestyle events. Junior Abigail Aggarao placed second in the 100-yard freestyle and third in the 100-yard backstroke.

“Although I did not have any [major] goals for [league], I felt like my times for my events were good,” Aggarao said. “I made sure [to] warm up before each of my events and sit with the team to cheer myself up.”

Boys varsity had some swimmers placing top three in their individual events. Junior Kenny Utomo placed first in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Max Wang placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke event.

“At the time, my mental state was like, I won one race so I should just try and [continue] winning other races,” Utomo said. “I was surprised when I realized that I placed first since I remember [being] ahead for the first 150 yards and then my body gave up  the last 50 yards. In the end, the difference between our times was milliseconds.”

After, the CIF-Southern Section championships comes the CIF prelims, where the top 36 swimmers are chosen. Based on their results, the top 18 will make it to the finals. Mom managed to place first in the 100-yard fly event and sixth in the 100-yard backstroke. As a result, she will compete in the state championships on Friday, May 12.

“I first came out of CIF wanting to achieve a personal record and get my junior nationals at state,” Mom said. But after thinking about it more, I want to go for the experience and make sure I’m having fun [in the] last meet of this high school season.”Ω