SWIMMING: CCS Finals to Include Howe-Grima Battle

Area athletes had some big days on Friday at the Central Coast Section swimming trials at the Santa Clara International Swim Center.

Sacred Heart Prep’s Ally Howe led three out of eight qualifiers in the girls 200-yard individual medley. She finished in 2 minutes, 1.62 seconds. Right behind was Woodside's Alicia Grima in 2:01.80, with Burlingame's Leah Goldman qualifying seventh in 2:07.06.

Howe and Grima should make for a nice battle at today's finals – the two are teammates on the Palo Alto-Stanford Aquatics team.

“We're both really good,” Grima said. “It depends on who has it at the end -- who can pull it off … see who's toughest at the end. We're both so close.”

Said Howe: “It's definitely going to be a good race because Alicia's a good Imer. I think I'm pretty good, too, so I think it's going to be a really good race. We train a lot together. We're not usually in the same lane, but we're near each other a lot.”

Howe had a tremendous day, qualifying first in the 100 backstroke in a CCS record time of 53.95, breaking the old mark by one-hundredth of a second. The freshman also swam a leg on two Gator relay teams that qualified for the finals – the 200 medley and the 400 freestyle.

Grima also was the top qualifier in the 500 freestyle in 4:53.78. The Woodside junior looks to defend her 2010 title on Saturday.

Goldman swam legs on Burlingame's 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays, which both qualified for today's finals. Her Panther teammate, Naomi Thomas, had another big day, qualifying second in the 100 butterfly behind Palo Alto's Jasmine Tosky, who set a CCS record in 51.92. Thomas was next in 55.25. Thomas, who was the runner-up to Tosky in the 100 butterfly last year, also swam legs on both relays.

Sacred Heart Prep had another top qualifier on the boys side in Tom Kremer. He had the leading time in the 200 freestyle (1:38.17) and the 100 backstroke (48.97) in addition to swimming legs on the Gator 400 freestyle and 200 freestyle relays. The former had the day's top time at 3:08.63.

“At the beginning of the week, I wasn't swimming the best times, and of course, I got worried, I thought, 'I won't do well at the meet,'” said Kremer, the CCS defending champion in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke. “I think today I was swimming really well, which is good, because I don't want to swim well too early.”

For such a high-level swimmer, Kremer is a bit angsty, to coin a phrase. Asked if he felt confident going into the finals, he said, “I don't know. 100 back is better but the 200 free is a really tight race. There are some people who I know that can go faster and they sort of took today easy. The 200 free will definitely be a good race.”

Teammate Andrew Savage qualified in the 100 freestyle (46.94) and the 50 freestyle (21.75) and swam legs on both relays.

Ronald Chen of San Mateo qualified in two individual events. He posted the fifth-best time in the 200 individual medley (1:52.30) and the sixth-best time in the 500 freestyle (4:39.96). The junior was a CCS finalist in both events last year, taking seventh in both.

“I felt good today,” Chen said, adding that he took it easy in the 500, trying to keep some gas in the tank for Saturday. “(I've been working on) my backstroke. That's my weakest stroke for the IM. I just have to race the other people in my heat. There are a lot of talented people here.”

Bryant Jacobs of Terra Nova also advanced in the 500 freestyle, qualifying eighth in 4:42.34.

“I felt really good,” Jacobs said. “I felt pretty smooth in the water. I was happy with the swim. I dropped a second, which is good.”

Menlo-Atherton had several strong performances, including a school record for senior Nick Henze, who qualified sixth in the 200 freestyle in an M-A mark of 1:41.12. He also qualified third in the 100 freestyle in 46.86. Kei Masuda qualified seventh in the 100 butterfly in 51.29 for the Bears. Evan Navarro qualified in the 100 freestyle in 47.88. Navarro, Masuda and Henze each swam legs on Menlo-Atherton's 400 freestyle relay team, which qualified for Saturday's finals.

Megan Beach of Sequoia qualified in the 500 freestyle (5:06.77). Teammate Lilly Nelson qualified in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.61).