The PAL Championship Meet, hosting varsity and JV swim teams from Carlmont, Woodside, Burlingame, Mills, Hillsdale, Aragon, Sequoia, and San Mateo, and M-A, took place at Burlingame High School from Wednesday to Friday.
The final day of the meet opened with relays, and M-A made an early statement. The girls 200-yard medley relay team, consisting of seniors Addison Finn and Hailey Preuss and freshmen Hana Lai and Kate Wong, touched the wall in 1:51.70, earning third place and a CCS qualifying time. The boys team of freshman Ryan Powell, junior Joseph Tompkins, junior Chan Na, and senior Zachary Quintana had similar success, clearing the CCS standard and finishing fourth in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:43.85.
Preuss had a standout day, winning the 100-yard butterfly in 55.56 and setting a new M-A school record in the 200-yard IM with a winning time of 2:02.00, both well under the CCS qualifying standard.
On the boys side, freshman Ryan Powell turned heads with a win in the 100-yard backstroke in 56.23, then anchored the 400-yard freestyle relay team alongside senior Jack Bullard, junior Alex Powell, and junior Micheal Powell to victory in 3:14.59. Bullard rounded out his day with a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle in 22.28, adding another CCS cut to M-A’s total.
The girls 400-yard freestyle relays proved pivotal in the team’s rank. Entering the event, the Bears trailed Carlmont by just one point. Both M-A relay teams finished ahead of Carlmont in both heats, creating a key turning point that helped seal the victory.
Lai also earned a CCS cut, finishing third in the girls 500-yard freestyle in 5:29.03, while Wong contributed to the medley relay and several other events throughout the meet.
When the final score was tallied, the M-A girls took home the PAL championship title for the first time in 10 years, defeating Carlmont by just five points. On the boys side, Carlmont claimed first place overall, while M-A wasn’t far behind, claiming second place.
“Going into PAL champs, we hoped to finish second since we had already lost in the regular season to Woodside and Carlmont,” junior Harper Williams said. “After the 500 [freestyle], we were told that we were only a couple of points behind Carlmont varsity girls, and at the end, when the scores were announced, we were super surprised to hear that we won and beat the Carlmont girls by just a couple of points for the first time in years.”
