SANTA CLARA — Jennifer Campbell was all smiles late Saturday afternoon. A two-time section champion before the meet, the Cal-bound swimmer from Gunn added to an already terrific high school resume.
In her final Central Coast Section swimming and diving championships, Campbell pulled away from the pack to three-peat in the 200-yard freestyle and then dethroned defending champ Sandra Soe of Pioneer to win the 500 free.
Campbell won the 200 free in 1:46.49 and 500 free in a personal-best 4:45.83.
When the 500 ended and she looked at the scoreboard at the Santa Clara International Swim Center, Campbell could not help but grin.
“It was a personal best by about four seconds,” she said. “It was a really good swim for me. I was not expecting that time at all. It felt good. I knew I had gone fast. But I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
The meet also included double individual victories by Palo Alto sophomore Grace Zhao (50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke) and Saratoga junior Xiangfei “Jack” Xie (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly).
Bellarmine College Prep won its 31st consecutive boys team championship, highlighted by two relay victories (200 freestyle, 400 freestyle) and Aidan Burns’ triumph in the 500 freestyle.
Archbishop Mitty, which like Bellarmine has a deep team, won the girls team title, an outcome that coach Tom Miller described as well-deserved.
“We had an up-and-down trials, and we had an up-and-down finals,” he said. “But we had a lot of depth, and that’s what it was. We didn’t win one event, but we won the team.”
For Palo Alto’s Zhao, she defended the championships she claimed last season as a freshman, winning the 50 free in 23.18 and 100 breaststroke in 1:02.04. She also swam the lead leg on Palo Alto’s victorious 200 freestyle relay team.
Xie, Saratoga’s double-winner, noted that he just moved to the area from China in January. Clearly, he has had no trouble adapting to the new surroundings. He won the 200 I.M. in 1:46.40 and 100 butterfly in 47.65.
Burns, Bellarmine’s Georgia-bound standout, fell short in his quest to win two individual titles. He won the 500 free in 4:24.19 but was unable to defend his title in the 200 free as Sheldon Boboff of St. Ignatius won in 1:38.52. Burns clocked a 1:39.04.
“Both of my races today hurt a little bit more than I thought they would,” said Burns, who also swam on Bellarmine’s two winning relay teams. “I was feeling really good in warm-up. I felt fine in the water. I think I just kind of got too caught up with expectations and let myself go spin out a little bit too much.”
St. Francis junior Benjamin Ho entered the meet aiming to defend two individual titles but could only repeat in one. Ho won the 100 freestyle in 44.99 and took second in the 100 backstroke in 49.65 (Aptos’ Christopher Staka won in 49.55).
“I was more disappointed in myself,” Ho said. “Technically, that was one of the worst swims I have done in awhile. I crashed into the lane lines on almost every single lap. It technically was pretty bad.”
Harker freshman Vivian Wang (200 I.M., 2:00.25), Los Gatos’ Alex Grimes (100 butterfly, 54.78), Pioneer’s Lauren Green (100 free, 50.05) and Santa Clara’s Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou (100 backstroke, 53.92) won girls individual titles. Los Altos’ Albert Gwo (50 free, 20.48) and Serra’s Joe Kmak (100 breaststroke, 55.05) won boys titles.
St. Francis won the boys 200 medley relay in 1:33.54, Cupertino won the girls 200 medley relay in 1:44.77 and Sacred Heart Prep won the girls 400 relay in 3:29.53.
The diving winners were Mimi Lin (Palo Alto) and Nick Mamola (Santa Teresa).
