Splashing the Party

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Entering the last event, Palisades High’s girls team was leading the City Section swim championships by six points, but head coach Maggie Nance knew that her team needed to finish strong to gain at least a share of the title. Fortunately, the Dolphins rose to the challenge and took second in the 400 freestyle relay to tie Granada Hills with 371.5 points thanks to the heroics of freshman Alexis Burrell. She trailed Venice sophomore Lily Wu, in the lane next to her, by almost two seconds at the start of her anchor leg, but gained ground with every stroke and edged her Gondos adversary by 59 hundredths of a second to ensure that her team would not leave the Valley College pool empty handed on Saturday.

Granada Hills won in 3:41.27 to earn 40 first-place points, but Palisades’ foursome of Sabrina Kim, Noa Levetrov, Bailey Gair and Burrell clocked 3:44.83 to pick up the 34 points they needed to create the girls’ first tie in finals history. The only other time two teams finished deadlocked was in 1974 when Palisades and Chatsworth tied for the boys team crown.

“I knew we had to get second and on my second 50 I went as fast as I could and started catching her,” said Burrell, who clocked a personal-best 1:56.60 to win the 200 freestyle, then won the 500 freestyle by almost five seconds earlier in the meet. “The last 25 I gave it everything I had. Yeah, I was tired but the adrenaline kicked in and took over the pain.”

Alexis and her twin sister Claire, who went to Paul Revere Middle School and live in Brentwood, were welcome and surprise additions to the squad this spring.

“I don’t recruit but I’m super excited to have the sisters,” said Nance, who watched the boys and girls teams both finish second last year. “Alexis is fierce! She closed a second anad a half faster than she’s ever gone in the relay.”

Venice, Granada Hills and Palisades went 1-2-3 in the first event, the girls’ 200 medley relay and the Dolphins’ 200 freestyle relay of Mika Mertzel, Emma Canter, Genessis Zuniga and Levertov was fourth in 1:49.42. Nance made sure her swimmers knew what was at stake before the last relay.

“I didn’t know until after the breaststroke finished but after the 200 free I did the math and saw that Granada Hills was closing. Venice was favored and if they’d won we would’ve been first outright but Granada Hills winning forced us to have to get second. So I told the girls if they [Granada Hills] get second you can get third and you’ll win. There just can’t be a gap of more than one spot.”

Granada Hills’ boys also won the 400 Freestyle Relay en route to their first team title since 2001. Palisades was the runner-up for the second straight year with 358 points. The girls added to their record total with their 31st City title and 15th udner Nance, who took the helm of her alma mater in 2004. Since then, she has also coached the boys to nine titles, giving her 24 overall.

“It’s nice to be back on top,” she said. “The culture of the team is really good and that makes it fun to coach them. We have so many young swimmers so we should be strong again next year.”

Riley Amis was second in the boys 100 freestyle in 49.45. Owen Grant, who led the boys’ water polo team to its 11th straight City title in the fall, was fourth in the 50 free in 22.77 and the 200 medley relay of Gabe Atkinson-Mann, Amis, Avery Grant and Roi Levertov was third.