Photo courtesy of SPHS Swim
Contributor

Girls’ varsity swim placed first at the Rio Hondo League finals on Wednesday, April 30. The girls’ team had an undefeated league season that included multiple new school records.  

The girls’ 200 yard medley was swam by freshman Claire Huang in backstroke, senior Ana Mancera-Rodriguez in breaststroke, freshman Adela Lim in butterfly, and sophomore Chloe Kim in freestyle. The Tigers placed second overall, less than one second behind Temple City and almost 20 seconds faster than the third place team. 

South Pasadena placed second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a 3:45.80 time. The relay was swam by senior Samantha Wong, Kim, Mancera-Rodriguez, and Huang. 

Individually, much of the girls’ team placed among the top eight. Huang took second in the 200-year individual-medley, followed by Mancera-Rodriguez in third. Junior Milla Humphrey placed fifth.

In the 100-yard butterfly, Lim placed second with a 59.36 time. Junior Emiko Essmiller captured fourth, senior Nadia Cho took sixth, and sophomore Justine Jiang ended seventh. 

Wong placed third in the 200-yard freestyle, and Essmiller took sixth. Additionally, Wong finished third in the 500-yard freestyle with 5:11.07. Wong was followed with back-to-back placements from sophomore Abigail Kim with 6:16.40, fifth by freshman Taylor Burns with 6:19.55, and sixth by junior Audrey Estanislao with 6:50.53. 

In the 100-yard backstroke, Huang placed first with a time of 58.85. Freshman Serenity Lee took fourth with 1:08.72. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Lim took second. Mancera-Rodriguez placed fifth.

CIF Preliminaries will be held on Wednesday, May 7 at Mt. SAC. CIF Finals will be held on Friday, May 9.

Back row from left: Claire Huang, Samantha Wong, Audrey Zheng, Ruby Meyer, Taylor Burns
Middle row from left: Ana Mancera Rodriguez, Sophie McCollum, Hayun Lee, Abigail Kim, Amaya Mahler, Nadia Cho
Front row from left: Audrey Estanislao, Milla Humphrey, Serenity Lee, Emiko Essmiller, Justine Jiang