Several members of San Marino High School’s girls’ varsity swim team accompanied coach Mark Barr into the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center pool after they won the Rio Hondo League championship on Friday afternoon. Pictured are (above, from left) Arwen Wen, Kiana Li, Sabrina Wang, Olivia Hindle, Leah Dean and Maya Borkar, who surround Barr en route to a spontaneous victory lap.
Employing a method that led them to an undefeated record in dual meets this season, the San Marino High School’s girls’ swim team saved the best for last, winning the final event of Friday’s Rio Hondo League finals to edge Temple City by 3-1/2 points to win its first outright championship since 2016.
As they had done a week earlier in the final dual meet of the season, the Titans’ 400-yard freestyle relay team of senior Sabrina Wang, junior Maya Borkar, sophomore Kiana Li and freshman Leah Dean did what they needed to do in order to pull off a victory. At the starting block, San Marino knew they needed at least a second-place finish in the event to earn the necessary points for a league title. The Titans rallied in the time of 3:44.40 to clinch the victory.
“I really have to give them credit,” said Barr. “They were able to pull off the winning time again. It made for a very exciting afternoon.”
The 200-yard medley relay team of junior Arwen Wen, Li, junior Amber Paul and senior Sophia Yao set a Rio Hondo League record with a time of 1:49.18.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Yao, Wen, Paul and Wang set a new league and school record with a time of 1:37.98.
Wang (2:11.43) and Kiana Li (2:12.10) went 1-2 in the 200-yard individual medley, Yao (23.90) and Paul went 1-3 in the 50-yard freestyle; Paul (56.67) and Borkar (1:00.63) went 1-5 in the 100 butterfly; Yao (52.24), Wang (53.98) and Borkar (57.25) went 1, 2, 7 in the 100 freestyle; Dean (5:39.72) went fifth in the 500 freestyle; Wen (1:01.29) finished third in the 100 backstroke and Li (1:06.18) won the 100 breaststroke.
San Marino qualified eight swimmers for the CIF preliminaries, which began yesterday in Mission Viejo.
