Rowland sophomore Kyle Tsuei shined at the CIF Southern Section Division 2 swimming championships by taking home two individual first-place medals and two second-place finishes in relays.

Tsuei also helped the Rowland boys swimming team to a third-place finish in the team standings. For his efforts, Tsuei has been named the San Gabriel Valley’s 2025 boys swimmer of the year.

Tsuei dominated in his best event, the 50-yard freestyle, easily winning in 20.47 seconds. He pulled away after he made the turn.

“I felt great, my legs were moving and my underwater felt very good,” Tsuei said following the race. “My finish was a lot better too.”

Tsuei wasn’t the favorite in the 100 backstroke following the prelims, but he showed his grit in the finals. Tsuei took over the final 25 yards to take the lead and held on for the victory in a winning time of 48.66. Tsuei held off Royal’s Aneesh Veeravatnam, who finished second in 49.16.

The Rowland boys 200 medley relay entered the final with the top prelim time, but the Raiders team of Tsuei, Anthony Zhang, Ethan Chen and Leo Zhang were overtaken in the final leg, finishing second in 1:34.01. Tsuei anchored the 400 relay team in the final race to a second-place finish in 3:08.00.

200 medley relay: Rowland (Kyle Tsuei, Anthony Zhang, Ethan Chen, Leo Zhang), 1:34.01

200 freestyle: Liam Thomas (San Marino), 1:39.16

200 individual medley: Lincoln Jones (La Mirada), 1:51.29

50 freestyle: Kyle Tsuei (Rowland), 20.47

100 butterfly: Victor Barrios (South Hills), 52. 26

100 freestyle: Liam Thomas (San Marino), 45.14

500 freestyle: Leon Mikulski (La Serna), 4:34.33

200 freestyle relay: San Marino (Ethan Yi, Mark O’Mara, Otis Tsai, Liam Thomas), 1:23.77

100 backstroke: Kyle Tsuei (Rowland), 48.66

100 breaststroke: Henry Yang (Flintridge Prep), 55.63

400 freestyle relay: San Marino (Liam Thomas, Grant O’Mara, Mark O’Mara, Otis Tsai), 3:04.16

1-meter diving: Marc Huang (Diamond Bar), 434.50