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For a high school swimmer, what is a better way to spend part of summer vacation than going to Southern California to watch the nation's best swimmers at the U.S. Olympic Trials?
Homestead High's Amber Hovey has a better way.
When she returns to school to begin her senior year in August, she will be able to tell how she competed against the nation's best at the Olympic Trials.
Hovey, who won the 100-yard butterfly at the Central Coast Section swimming and diving championships in May, has qualified in that event for the trials. She is one of six De Anza Cupertino Aquatics athletes who will try to win berths on the team that will represent the U.S. at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, according to Tori Eubanks, a DACA coach.
Hovey's championship swim of 55.03 seconds in the CCS butterfly event and her second-place effort in the 200 individual medley (2:05.24) both gained her automatic All-American status. Hovey also combined with senior teammates Catherine Kung (backstroke) and Jessica Lee (breaststroke) and junior Jackie Laird (freestyle) to take second in the 200 medley relay in 1:50.5.
Homestead finished seventh in the girls competition at the CCS meet, held May 1315 at Independence High School in San Jose. Archbishop Mitty won the girls team championship. Monta Vista placed 11th and Lynbrook was 13th. Bellarmine claimed the boys title. Monta Vista, led by its 400 relay team, placed eighth.
Monta Vista freshman Courtney Rudolph won the girls diving competition with 455.40 points, edging out Palo Alto senior Heather Peng (448.15) and Branham junior Ashley Potoc (434.45). Another Matador, sophomore Yaroslava Ryzanova, placed 13th.
After the diving competition was held on May 13, swimming preliminaries were held the next day. Several qualifying heats were held for each event, as more than 40 swimmers were entered in some events. The 16 fastest qualifiers in each event moved on to the finals session and earned points for their teams, with the top eight vying for a CCS individual title.
Lynbrook sophomore Nilasha Ghosh (56.77) earned AAA status while placing second to Hovey in the 100 fly. Ghosh also took second in the 50 free in 24.14 and was part of two relay teams that finished in the top 10. Another sophomore, Dominique Lazorovici of Monta Vista, was fourth in the 100 back (58.92) and sixth in the 200 IM.
Ghosh led off Lynbrook's 400 free relay team's eighth-place finish. She was followed by sophomore Jessica Chen, junior Eileen Shu and sophomore Jenny Wei. Homestead's quartet of Laird, freshman Michele Camburn, Kung and Hovey was 10th in the event. Monta Vista's team of Lazarovici, seniors Sasha Brophy and Nicole Ley and junior Andrea Pang took 13th.
The same Matador quartet was 10th in the 200 free relay. Homestead's team of junior Jessica Schwiesow, Lee, senior Alicia Chapman and Camburn was 16th.
Monta Vista's boys 400 team was second only to Bellarmine. Juniors Kevin Luu and Ben Casavant and sophomores Onur Erbilgin and Russ Underwood clocked 3:16.15. Lynbrook was 13th and Homestead 14th.
Freshman Brandt Robinson, sophomores Kevin Piercy and Andrew Wu and junior Michael Wang teamed up to swim 3:23.13 for the Vikings. Homestead's squad of senior Brian Bucher, juniors Kharta Khalsa and Kenny Russum and senior Matt Schmidt, finished in 3:24.35.
The top individual performer among area boys was Schmidt, taking fifth in both the 200 IM and the 100 breast. Other top eight finishes were turned in by Cupertino's Josh Overby and Michael Jarvis, and Matadors Luu and Underwood.
Schmidt clocked 1:57.85 in the medley. Erbilgin won the consolation medley race in 1:59.63, earning ninth-place in the event. In the 100 breast, Schmidt raced to 59.34 and Luu was two places behind in 60.0. Firebird Wen was 11th and senior teammate Gordon Cameron was 14th.
Overby, a Cupertino sophomore, was sixth in the 500 free in 4:42.24, and senior teammate Jarvis (22.35) took seventh in the 50 free. Monta Vista's Underwood, swimming in the consolation final, placed 11th in the short sprint with 22.28.
Underwood later was seventh in the 100 free with 48.54. Wang of Lynbrook was 14th . Robinson's time of 55.36 earned 13th in the 100 back.
Monta Vista's medley relay team of Underwood, Luu, Erbilgin and sophomore Michael Ahn placed 11th. Homestead's team of sophomore Andrew Sun, Schmidt, Khalsa and Bucher finished 13th. Lynbrook was 15th, as Robinson and Wang teamed with sophomore Andrew Wu and freshman Matt Chen.
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