St. Margaret's Swimming and Diving Sets Records and Qualifies for CIF Post Season

The Tartan Swim & Dive teams had a remarkable showing at the San Joaquin League Finals at Sage Hill School on April 18, achieving 13 new CIF cuts and breaking one league and two school records.

Junior Owen Young led the boys team, swimming to a lifetime best and CIF cuts in the 200 freestyle (1:47.00; 3rd place), 100 backstroke (56.16; 2nd), and 100 freestyle (50.87; lead off relay). Young now holds the second-fastest times in school history in both the 200 free/100 back and 3rd best time in the 100 freestyle in Tartan history. Junior Nate Mouchawar took off 1.5 seconds in the 50 free to swim to a 3rd place finish and CIF cut with a time of 22.69; now the second fastest performance in school history. The relay team of Young, Mouchawar, senior Andrew Ahn and junior Winston Paik also dipped under a CIF cut in the boys 200 freestyle relay where the Tartan's swam to a 1:39.73. Freshman Charlie Whiting also represented the Tartans in the finals of the 500 freestyle where he swam to a lifetime best of 6:05.15.

The girls team was led by junior Grace Zhou who broke two school records on her way to a stellar showing at the league finals. Zhou's 100 freestyle lead-off split of 55.23 broke a 14-year-old school record, followed by re-breaking her record in the 50 freestyle from last season with a 25.20, the later good for a CIF automatic time cut. Zhou partnered with juniors Jacquelin Leung, Valerie Ihara, and Whitney Kaemmer in the 200 freestyle swimming to a CIF time of 1:49.07; the second fastest performance ever in school history. Zhou, Leung, Kaemmer and junior Megan Short lead the 400 freestyle relay to another CIF cut of 4:02.52 which now ranks as the fifth fastest time in school history. Also breaking into the Tartan All-Time Top-10 in individual races include Megan Short (500 freestyle: 6:20.10; 8th), Jacqueline Leung (200 IM: 2:35.10; 9th) Whitney Kaemmer (100 butterfly: 1:13.85; 10th) and freshman Amelia Kang (100 breaststroke: 1:19.66). On the JV side, senior captain Jenny Carpenter swam to a first-place finish in the 200 freestyle while also breaking the league record in the event with a time of 2:38.38.

Freshman diver Celeste Taylor picked up her first league title in the diving competition by scoring 396 points, automatically qualifying for the CIF Championships.

The Tartans will be back in the pool on April 29 for CIF Diving Finals and on May 1 and 2 for the Swimming Championships at the Riverside Community College Aquatics complex.