Andrew Maksymowski Swims Best Times in the 50/100 Frees; Woodbridge Girls Dominate

2024 Pacific Coast League Championships

• April 23-27, 2024
• Beckman High School, Irvine, California
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2024 PCL Championships”

The 2024 Pacific Coast League Championships featured an upset on the boys’ side of the pool, with the Portola boys upsetting the defending champions and CIF State Championship contenders from Northwood High School, while on the girls’ side it was Woodbridge that grabbed a dominant win over the hosts from Beckman High.

Boys’ Varsity Team Standings:

1. Portola – 486
2. Northwood – 445.5
3. Woodbridge – 408
4. University – 367
5. Beckman – 237.5
6. Irvine – 231
7. Sage Hill – 199
8. Launga Hills – 170

Girls’ Varsity Team Standings:

1. Woodbridge – 635
2. Beckman – 460
3. Northwood – 411
4. Portola – 376
5. Irvine – 325
6. University – 222
7. Sage Hill – 151
8. Laguna Hills – 63

Portola, a relatively-new school in Irvine, opened in only 2016. While they didn’t score at last year’s CIF State Championship meet, Portola grabbed the team title based on depth. In spite of the loss, the Northwood boys, who were 4th at last year’s state meet, March on toward the CIF Southern Section Championships and CIF State Championships, where top-end talent starts to push past the deeper teams.

Northwood swept the meet’s relays in dominant fashion, winning the 200 medley in 1:32.90, the 200 free relay in 1:22.82, and the 400 free relay in 3:04.50. That swim in the 200 free relay is a new Northwood School Record.

Andrew Maksymowski, Courtesy: Alexei Tolkachev Photography/@oneinamillionshot

Northwood might have the best freestyle crew in the state, including a pair of state title contenders in the 200 free. On Saturday, Will Chen, a junior, won that race in 1:38.34, taking a tenth off his own personal best set two weeks earlier. The team’s best 200 freestyler, sophomore Andrew Maksymowski, didn’t swim that race at these league championships.

Besides anchoring the winning 200 and 400 free relays, he also won the 100 free in 44.76. That knocked more than half-a-second off his best time of 45.29 from Sectionals in December.

He also swam a best time of 20.87 in the 50 free, which placed him 2nd behind the winning 20.35 from Woodbridge senior Jacob Wang. Wang is committed to swim at UCSD in the fall; that time was a touch slower than his personal best of 20.20 done at this meet last year.

Maksymowski has been 1:36.47 in the 200 free, and is expected to swim that race at next weekend’s Sectional meet and the State Championship meet.

With the exception of Wang’s win in the 50 free and a 4:37.25 from Woodbridge sophomore Max Stewart in the 500 free, the Northwood boys nearly swept the day’s swimming events. Senior Elson Lee won the 200 IM in 1:50.40, junior Derek Hitchens won the 100 fly in 48.70, Hitchens won again in the 100 back in 48.56, and senior Ryan Connole won the 100 breast in 56.72.

Hitchens’ swims were both big best times: the 100 fly knocked half-a-second off his best time from last year’s state meet, and his 100 back knocked four-tenths off his best time from last year’s PCL meet. He finished 15th and 18th, respectively, in those races at last year’s state meet.

In the girls’ meet, Woodbridge defended their PCL title, winning the meet by 175 points.

The Warriors, who were 21st at last year’s state championship meet, were led by league MVP Zara Masud.

A senior committed to Georgia Tech, Masud won the 200 IM in 2:02.46 and the 100 free in 50.28. Those were both best times, shaving off two tenths in the 200 IM and knocking half-a-second off in the 100 free.

Her time in the 100 free would have ranked 5th at Georgia Tech last season, putting her on path to have an immediate relay impact for the Yellow Jackets as a freshman.

She also split 24.47 on the fly leg of Woodbridge’s winning 200 medley relay (1:47.00) and 49.57 on the anchor leg of the winning 400 free relay (3:31.79).

The team’s other individual wins of the meet came from sophomore Maya Nishizaka in 1:06.96, just out-touching her senior teammate Melissa Wong in 1:06.98; and freshman Isabella Parker in the 50 free in 24.07.

They also won the 200 free relay in 1:37.33 to sweep those events.

The girls from Portola also picked up a handful of wins at the meet en route to a 3rd-place finish. That included senior Sophia Riley Sim in the 100 fly (54.69), Tiffany Kim in the 500 free (4:57.44), and Aliyah Fan in the 200 free (1:51.74).

Alexia Duncan won the 100 back for Irvine High School in 57.11. A senior committed to Utah next season, Duncan was 5th in this race at last year’s CIF State Championship meet in 55.12.