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Panthers second at CCS finals
By Dick Sparrer
How close did the Presentation girls swimming team come to winning a Central Coast Section championship last weekend?
Would you believe a couple of seconds?
It may seem hard to believe, but after three months of swimming, that's about what it came down to for the Panthers when they finished just two and a half points behind Mitty at the girls finals held last weekend at the Santa Clara International Swim Center.
Mitty ran up 248.0 points to win the team title, with Presentation a very close second at 245.5. Homestead was a distant third at 209.0.
Just a couple of close finishes could have meant the difference for the Panthers, and there was none closer than the final heat of the 200-yard individual medley.
Jenny Voight came through with a 207.59 in the 200 IM. The time was good for All-American consideration and for fourth overall in CCS. But the sophomore was barely touched out at the wall by Homestead's Heidi Schmidt, who was third in 2:07.49.
Kiana Taheri and Voight were individual stars for Presentation in the meet. But the heroics for the Panthers came in the relays.
Michelle Miller, Taheri, Laura Wheeler and Jamie Hinderliter combined for a CCS championship in the 200 free relay in record time, and the quartet of Miller, Taheri, Voight and Hinderliter finished first in the 400 free relay with an All-American time.
The Presentation foursome set a new CCS standard in the 200 free relay in 1:38.49, breaking the old mark of 1:38.93 set in 1997 by St. Francis. The time just missed the automatic All-American standard of 1:38.08, but was good for All-American consideration.
The 400 free relay team, though, did better the automatic All-American standard of 3:33.18. The foursome finished in 3:33.03 to edge Homestead by just three-hundredths of a second.
Taheri, a sophomore, was second in the 200 freestyle in 1:53.76 to Homestead All-American Aphrodite Daphnis. Taheri's time was good for All-American consideration. Taheri came back with a fourth in the 100 butterfly in 59.35, finishing barely behind Starr Airey of Aptos (third in 59.03).
Voight, along with finishing fourth in the IM, was fourth in the 500 free in 5:03.42. That time was good for All-American consideration. Miller, another Presentation soph, was fifth in both the 50 free in 24.75 and the 100 free in 53.89. Wheeler, just a freshman, was eighth in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.02. She also finished first in the 200 free consolation race in 1:56.04.
Senior Kai Pusic supported with an eighth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.46, and Hinderliter, another senior, was second in the 200 IM consolation event in 2:09.71.
The team of Wheeler, Voight, Pusic and freshman Colleen Smith opened the meet with a solid sixth in the 200 medley relay in 1:52.53. The time was good for All-American consideration.
WG foursome places
The Willow Glen 200 medley relay team also placed at the CCS finals. The foursome of Courtney Livak (freshman), Allison Woodside (junior), Kara Buchanan (sophomore) and Whitney Gregg (junior) finished in 1:59.83 to finish seventh in the consolation race at the CCS meet.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
