Soaring to new heights in the month of March, Paseo Aquatics swimmers left their mark at the SoCal Junior Olympic Championships held March 14-17 at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena.
Both the girls and boys 13-14 200-yard freestyle relay teams led the notable finishes, setting new Santa Clarita Valley records with their times.
Paseo Aquatics boys swimmers Michael Lee, Luke Bezanilla, Daniel Jo and Bryant Lee finished in fourth-place out of 43 teams with a time of one minute, 31.10 seconds, breaking the previous SCV record.
“It feels good that I’m able to cooperate with my teammates and that we are able to work hard,” Bezanilla said. “We are actually making times and succeeding. It was very fast and nerve-racking, but it was very fun to see all my other teammates do well. It was a fun meet to be with all these fast people and watch them and learn from them.”
The foursome finished in sixth place in the 200-yard medley relay, missing out on a podium finish by less than three seconds in 1.44.08.
Individually, Michael Lee finished second in the boys 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.88 seconds, fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.41 and a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle in 48.34.
Bezanilla placed 14th in the 50-yard freestyle (23.17) and 16th in the 100-yard freestyle (49.88).
The younger Bezanilla, Brett, finished in 1:04.10 for a third-place finish in the 10 and Under freestyle.
“It’s great to see that he also is putting in a lot of hard work,” Luke said about swimming with his younger brother. “It’s just great to see that he’s going fast and making his mark.”
Riley Botton, Teia Salvino, Sydney Zancanaro and Cameron Snowden was the other relay team to etch their name in the record books with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay race in 1:35.70 breaking a Paseo Aquatics and SCV record by two-plus seconds.
“Actually going into the meet, my mom was most likely not going to let me swim because of a sinus infection,” Salvino said. “So I was nervous and didn’t really get ready for the meet as usual so it was really unexpected to see how fast I was going to swim. I had good and bad races.”
Canyons Aquatics held the previous record finishing in 1:35.86.
The same girls pushed through for a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:33.86).
Salvino picked up three top-five individual finishes, placing second in the 50-yard freestyle (23.52), fourth in the 200-yard individual medley and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle (51.75).
Botton also had notable top 10 individual finishes, placing fourth in the 200-yard freestyle race (1:52.33) and a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (51.92) and a tie for sixth in the 50-yard freestyle (24.30).
Zancanaro and Snowden finished 10th and 20th in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 24.82 and 25.53, respectively.
“I think it was a really good meet for all of us,” Salvino said. “I know we are all really happy with the times we got. We are all just excited.”
