Gabi Brito helps lead Santa Monica to CIF-SS

Gabi Brito went from being irritated to elated in the Southern Section Division 1 swim championships Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

In her second event, the 100-yard butterfly, Brito glanced at the board, noticed 51.65 seconds next to her identify and thought she had missed her probability to better the 51.41 she clocked two days earlier at prelims, a mark that broke the Division 1 file of 51.53 seconds set by Santa Margarita senior Katie McLaughlin in the 2015 finals.

Moments later she discovered the timers had conferred and modified her official successful time to 50.74 — practically half a second sooner than the earlier best of 51.20 she set at the Speedo Sectionals in Oceanside in February.

“Well, I soft-touched and some coach told me they’d corrected it so I got a lot happier,” the Santa Monica sophomore said. “It’s a relief given that I’m not going to state so this is my last high school meet of the season.”

The event schedule gave Brito little time to get well after successful her first event, the 50-yard freestyle, in which she swam a 21.66, again decreasing the personal best of 21.93 she swam at prelims, two-hundredths of a second off the meet file set by Abbey Weitzeil of Saugus in 2015.

“I’m very surprised with the 50,” said the 15-year-old, who also gained both occasions as a freshman and led the Vikings to the Division 2 staff title. “I was confident I could go 21 again. I had more pre-race jitters than usual.”

Brito is wanting ahead to the Speedo Grand Challenge on May 22-24 in Irvine.

“I’m pretty pleased how both went considering I only had 15 minutes in between, but I do a lot of quick turnarounds and I know how to manage myself,” added Brito, who later anchored both freestyle relays (Santa Monica was third in the 200 in 1:35.29 and first in the 400 in 3:38.40). “I’m only 15 so who knows what I can do? I enjoy any of the 100 events. If I have a rested 100 fly, I can go faster.”

Santa Monica swept the staff titles, the women setting a part file with their twelfth in a row, surpassing the 11 straight division titles Mission Viejo claimed from 1976 to 1986 under Jan Most. The Vikings totaled 383.5 factors, virtually lapping runner-up San Clemente (204). The boys gained their sixth straight and racked up 421 factors, breaking the Division 1 file they set in 2023 with a rating of 405.

Alyssa Ton of Fountain Valley repeated as the 200 and 500 freestyle champion. She gained the 200 in 1:45.15 and the five hundred in 4:44.26, better than her prelim occasions but off her personal bests (1:44.12 and 4:43.39) which she achieved at last 12 months’s finals.

“I’m not too satisfied with the 200 — last year I was a little over a second faster,” said Ton, a junior dedicated to Tennessee. “I was more pleased with the second race because my fives can be all over the place. It’s really easy to add time because it’s a longer race but I was only a second off my best.”

Ton has her sights set on the 200 meet mark.

“I’m sure the [CIF record] 1:43.01 will linger in my mind as next season comes around,” she said. “It’s a possibility but it’ll take guts to do it. I’m not sure [about state] because I have a club meet right after, but I want to go as a senior.”

Norwood senior and USC commit Andrew Maksymowski, who was the quickest qualifier in both the 200 and 500 freestyle, defended both titles, successful the 200 in a personal-best 1:34.70 and the space race in 4:22.85.

Stanford-bound Connor Ohl of Newport Harbor gained the 50 freestyle dash for a second straight 12 months in 19.96 — one-hundredth of a second off the meet file set in 2008 by Joey Hale of Redlands.

Ryder Davis of Damien gained the 100 backstroke in 47.99 and Corona del Mar’s Ethan Lim gained the 100 breaststroke in 54.85 with six of 9 swimmers in the ‘A’ remaining posting occasions under 56 seconds.