No amount of adversity could slow down Mary Hanson this past swimming season.

Despite a late-season auto accident, no female teammates, plus two practice-pool breakdowns, the Ridgecrest-Immanuel Christian senior persevered and had outstanding year.

It was capped off with Hanson blazing her way to Southern Section Division IV and Masters Meet titles in the 50 free and 100 backstroke.

Her Southern Section Masters Meet winning times of 23.24 seconds in the 50 free and 54.48 in the 100 backstroke both were substantially faster than the first-place times in those events at the Central Section Championships.

That makes it easy to see why Hanson was chosen for the second straight year as The Californian's Girls Swimmer of the Year.

"I think the purpose of my life is to do the best for God," Hanson said of her source of motivation. "He's given me this talent for swimming, so this is a way for me to show that there is a God and he's there for us. I feel he's given me this so I should give it all back to him."

The Californian also is honoring Liberty sophomore Lucy LaFranchise and Frontier senior Kristyn Kirschenman as its Co-Divers of the Year. LaFranchise won the Southeast Yosemite League meet and finished second at the Central Section Championships with 348.15 points. Meanwhile, Kirschenman won both the Southwest Yosemite League and area meets and scored 324.10 points to finish third at the section championships.

All of Hanson's postseason success came after she was a passenger in car accident about three weeks before the Division IV meet.

"My shoulder got slammed into the side of the car because we rolled," Hanson said. "It was pretty messed up for a while, and I couldn't practice. If I would swim, it would get stiff and stuff but, it started getting a lot better later on. It's pretty much fine now, but it was kind of scary when it first happened."

Earlier in the year, Hanson couldn't practice for a week when both pools on the naval base where Immanuel Christian normally practices became inoperable.

Hanson took the setback in stride.

"We had to swim at the community pool for a while," she said. "That's where Burroughs swim team practices, so we had to practice after them, so it was kind of late at night. But it was still good."

Hanson, whose father Grant is the Immanuel Christian coach, has been swimming competitively since she was 4 years old.

"The main thing is her attention to detail," Grant Hanson said. "I started working on little things back when she was 7 or 8 years old...It's about not leaving any stone unturned and taking advantage of every possible thing that can improve your speed. She listens and does those things. And when it comes time to compete, it's just beautiful."

Hanson finished her high school career with three Masters and six Division IV titles, including a combined five meet records.

Those exploits garnered her scholarship offers from numerous colleges. But ultimately, she chose to follow in the footsteps of her two older sisters and will attend Cal Baptist University in Riverside.