Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Park, Kane star at CCS finals

By Dick Sparrer

Chris Park and Jeremy Kane will be back in the water for the Los Gatos swimming team next spring.

And that's just an early warning to the rest of the swimmers in the Central Coast Section.

Because Park and Kane are already among the best in CCS, and they proved it at the section swimming championships May 18 at the De Anza Aquatics Center in Cupertino.

Park was a double winner at CCS, taking the 50-yard freestyle in 21.29 and the 100 free in 46.33.

Kane finished first in the 500 free in 4:26.11 and added a second in the 200 free in 1:41.69.

As if three individual firsts and a second weren't enough, the two also teamed with senior Lance Campbell and junior Chris Herr for a first in the 200 free relay in 1:26.27 and a first in the 400 free relay in 3:09.36.

All in all, it was quite a day for Park and Kane, and there are more days to come for the Wildcat stars when they return for their senior seasons next spring.

Campbell wrapped up an outstanding aquatics career for the Wildcats with the two relay wins and a couple of solid individual performances.

Campbell came through with a fifth in the 100 free in 48.01, and he added a seventh in the consolation finals of the 200 free in 1:46.27.

Joe Kocal was another Los Gatos winner at CCS, taking the 1-meter diving event. He ran up 173.70 points to finish second in the preliminaries, then finished second in the semifinals with 278.50 points. He won the title with 406.60 points in the finals.

Junior Marc Cavagnolo (200 free), senior John Etheridge (200 individual medley) and Herr (50 free) also competed in the CCS finals for Los Gatos.

Leigh divers Ryan Slater and Tim McMahon starred at the section meet, finishing second and third behind Kocal.

Slater had finished first in the prelims (177.55 points) and first in the semifinals (283.45), but ended up second in the finals with 402.85 points. McMahon came through with 315.45 points to finish third in the finals after finishing fourth in both the prelims and semi's.

Leigh sophomore Asaf Vain-sencher (200 IM) also competed in the CCS meet.

Cats second at finals

Los Gatos had finished second to Monta Vista at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division championships this spring.

The Matadors, unbeaten in the dual meet season, rolled up 464.5 points at the finals to swamp runnerup Los Gatos and third-place Palo Alto. The Wildcats finished with 390 points and Paly was a distant third with 320 points.

Just as they did at CCS, Kane and Park starred at the league finals.

Kane was first in the 200 free in 1:44.03 and he took the 500 in 4:33.83. Park was a champ in the 50 free in 21.42 and was tops in the 100 free in 47.03. Kocal took the diving event with 366.65 points and Campbell added a third in the 100 free in 49.91.

The foursome of Campbell, Herr, Kane and Park took the 200 free relay in 1:29.01 and won the 400 free relay in 3:16.62.