Cal Commit Dar Lavrenko Spooks CIF Central Coast 100 FR Section Record at 43.97 in Prelims

2024 CIF Central Coast Section Championships

• May 2nd-4th, 2024 (Swimming)
• Independence High School
• San Jose, CA (PDT)
• SCY (25y)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• Meet Info
• Girls Prelims Recap
• Boys Prelims: Friday, May 3rd
• Boys & Girls Finals: Saturday, May 4th, 1:30PM
  • Defending Champs: St. Ignatius girls (2x) | Palo Alto boys (2x)
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2024 CCS Swimming & Diving Championships”

The 2024 CIF-Central Coast Section (CIF-CCS) Championships, held at Independence High School in San Jose, continues with Friday’s boys’ round of prelims in the books following Thursday’s girls’ prelims session. Continue reading for a breakdown of the boys CIF-CCS prelims session.

Both girls and boys finals events will be contested on Saturday, May 4th, beginning at 1:30PM PDT. For an automatic 2024 CIF state qualification in the Central Coast Section, one must place top-three in an event final.

• Click here for more information on all 11 CIF sections’ meet schedules and full 2024 CIF State Championship Series schedule.

Boys’ Prelims Highlights

After settling for runner-up in the 2023 100 free final (45.06), Mountain View junior and future Cal commit Dar Lavrenko is setting himself up for a potential CIF section championship meet record take-down. Lavrenko holds the top 100 free prelims time at 43.97, the only sub-45 swim on Friday. Sophomores Tyler Porter (45.42) of Bellarmine finished 0.04s ahead of Nathan Foucu (45.46) from King’s Academy to seal off the top three qualifiers. 

Lavrenko’s swim marks his first time under 44 seconds, breaking his former 44.55 PB from less than a month ago at PC Far Westerns. Of note, the CIF-CCS meet record in the boys’ 100 free is a 43.52, set by Max Saunders in 2019. Lavrenko is now only within 0.45s striking distance of the meet record.

Lavrenko also put up the fastest 50 free prelims time on Friday, stopping the clock at 20.37. Touching in a close 0.07s behind was Bellarmine’s Tyler Porter (20.44). In 2023, Lavrenko placed sixth in the 50 free final at 21.02, with Salinas sophomore Clark Apuada placing 8th in the same final. Apuada comes in as this year’s No. 4 seed (20.96) behind Leland’s Isaac Litwiller (20.88). Out-ranking the aforementioned pair in last year’s final were St.Ignatius’ Andrew Koika (20.74) and Los Altos’ Isaac Shang (20.94), respectively finishing third and fourth. After Friday’s prelims, junior Shang (21.00) and senior Koika (21.01) currently rank 6th and 7th respectively. Valley Christian’s Yury Kuzmenko out-swam the duo as well for 5th seed at 20.97.

Onto the 200 IM, seniors Gunn’s Kelson Cantrell and Aragon’s Gabriel Anagnoson placed 4th and 6th respectively in the 2023 final. This year, Anagnoson took the early prelims lead at 1:50.22, just 0.17s ahead of Archbishop Mitty freshman Shareef Elaydi (1:50.39) and No.3 seed Cantrell (1:51.81). Later on, Archbishop’s Elaydi put up a dominant 48.88 prelims 100 fly effort to lead over sophomore Archbishop teammate Enzo Balbuena (49.61). Rounding out the sub-50 prelims swims include Gunn sophomore Nate Yoon (49.84) and Los Altos’ Isaac Shang (49.94).

Flipping over to the 100 back prelims, Woodside junior Seth Collet earned his second top prelims swim of the day, punching in at 48.85. Collet comes into Saturday’s 100 back final as the defending event champion, where he won that final at 49.31. The remaining top four finalists accompanying Collet will be Archbishop flyer Enzo Balbuena (49.95), Gunn’s Nate Yoon (50.23), and top 200 IM qualifier Aragon’s Gabriel Anagnoson (50.31). In 2023, finishing behind Collet’s winning time were Anagnoson at 4th (50.41), Balbuena at 5th (50.85), and Yoon at 8th (52.31) in that order.

More Boys’ Prelims Top Seeds

• Woodside junior Seth Collet narrowly edged out Henry M. Gunn senior Andy Cui for the top 200 free prelims spot, 1:37.79 to 1:37.97. Taking third prelims seed was King’s Academy sophomore Nathan Foucu with a 1:39.11. Last year, Sacred Heart’s Cole Ballard won the 200 free final in 1:39.20, holding off Cui (1:39.58) while Collet settled for 7th place. This year, now-senior Ballard rests in fifth in prelims at 1:39.84. 
• Into the longest event of the program, the 500 free, St. Francis’ Francisco Goya improved from a 7th-place finish in 2023 as a sophomore at 4:39.00 to leading 2024 prelims one year later as a junior with a 4:30.08, nearly nine full seconds faster than his 2023 section finals time. Menlo-Atherton’s Michael Powell put up an eye-popping 4:31.07 as a freshman for No.2 seed while seniors Gunn’s Andy Cui (4:32.11) and Sacred Heart’s Cole Ballard (4:32.60) qualified into their second freestyle CCS final this week.
• In the last individual event, the 100 breast, the top five prelims swimmers are all soon-to-be graduating seniors. Los Gatos’ Ewan Longergan comes in with the fastest prelims time of 55.10, already 1.2s faster than his 5th-place time from the 2023 final (56.30). Valley Christian’s Freddie Cumming (#2 55.79) and Gunn’s Kelson Cantrell (#5 56.60) both equally upgraded from the 2023 B-final to the 2024 A-final. Seeded third at 56.39 is Christian’s Thomas Aguero, the 2023 third-place finisher (55.93). Los Altos’ Trent Stegina is the fifth senior in this event final, sandwiched between Aguero and Cantrell for 4th seed at 56.44.

Boys’ Prelims Relay Highlights and Top Splits

Heading into the first event of Saturday’s finals session, the 200 medley relay, five teams swam within one second of each other during prelims. The Archbishop Mitty boys combined for the top prelims time of 1:32.55. Of note, Aragon trails behind the top relay by 0.33s at 1:32.88, while featuring the fastest 50 back and fly splits of the whole field.

The remaining top five relays clocked in 1:33-point times: Gunn (1:33.15), Los Altos (1:33.50), and Leland (1:33.54). Two-time CIF-CCS team champions Palo Alto ranked sixth with a 1:34.36 after prelims.

Top 200 Medley Relay Splits

• 50 back: Gabriel Anagnoson (Aragon), 23.22
• 50 breast: Trent Stegina (Los Altos), 25.41
• 50 fly: Seth Smith (Aragon), 22.26
• 50 free: Dar Lavrenko (Mountain View), 20.03

Entering the fast-paced 200 free relay heats, numerous intimidating 20-point 50 freestyle legs created another tight finals line-up, with the top three relays clocking times in the 1:24-range. The Gunn boys quartet came first in prelims at 1:24.32, with Los Altos taunting three-tenths behind at 1:24.62. The Archbishop Mitty boys, the top seed in the 200 medley relay, finished within a 0.37s striking distance behind Los Altos at 1:24.99.

Once again, the Palo Alto boys put up another sixth-place prelims relay seed at 1:26.26. Ahead of them are solid all-around freestyle crews of Bellarmine (1:25.46) and Sacred Heart (1:25.63).

Top 200 Free Relay Splits

• Shareef Elaydi (Archbishop), 20.64
• Dar Lavrenko (Mountain View), 20.54
• Trent Stegina (Los Altos), 20.42
• Tyler Porter (Bellarmine), 20.08

Into the last prelims event, the team competition started to pick up again with another round of musical chairs among the championship final-qualifying relays. The Bellarmine boys (3:07.08) got a brief one-up on the Gunn foursome (3:07.29) and snagged the 400 free relay top seed by 0.21s.

Sneaking into third seed was Los Gatos (3:08.97), who bumped down Aragon (3:09.93) to fourth. While only a tenth of a second separates 5th-seeded Sacred Heart (3:10.34) and 6th-seeded Leland (3:10.44), Palo Alto found themselves trailing those two relays by four-tenths for 7th seed (3:10.84).

Top 400 Free Relay Splits

• Andy Cui (Gunn), 45.79
• Tyler Porter (Bellarmine), 45.65
• Mathijs Dirven (Los Gatos), 45.60
• Isaac Litwiller (Leland), 45.51