Warriors win Valley League boys swim championship

Fallbrook High School won the Valley League boys swim championship while taking first place in six of the 12 events.

"The boys swam really well, particularly in the freestyle events," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

A school is allowed up to four swimmers in each individual event during the preliminary heats, which took place May 3 at Fallbrook High School. The six fastest times in each event advanced swimmers to the championship race during the May 5 finals at Fallbrook, and the next six fastest swimmers competed in the consolation finals. The league meet also included the May 2 diving competition at Fallbrook.

Not only did all four Fallbrook swimmers qualify for the 50-yard freestyle championship race, but the Warriors took the top four positions in the final. The winning time of 22.61 seconds was posted by junior Greg Jameson, senior Spencer Wallace was second at 22.84 seconds, senior John Brodak had the third-place time of 23.28 seconds, and freshman Cameron Batty finished fourth with a 23.78-second performance.

"We've never done that before, so that was really impressive," Richardson said of taking the top four positions.

Fallbrook had the top two diving scores – junior Joseph Greenwood accumulated 256.55 points while senior Jake McKinnon totaled 190.65 points.

Last year's diving champion was current Fallbrook sophomore Tiane Maestus, who swims as well as dives for the Warriors. Maestus was taking the ACT college admission test when the CIF diving meet was contested May 11, but he will be able to swim at the CIF meet. Maestus was part of the winning 200-yard medley relay team at the league meet and qualified for the championship race in both of his individual events.

"He did well," said Richardson of Maestus.

Maestus thus became the third consecutive league diving champion from Fallbrook not to defend his title the following year. Fallbrook was in the Avocado West League in 2014 when Rickey Stephens won the league diving championship as a junior, but Stephens was also on Fallbrook's boys rugby club and broke his finger in a tournament the day before the 2015 Valley League diving meet. Greenwood won the 2015 league championship as a freshman but missed most of last year with a back injury.

"I hope that's not going to be the trend next year," said Richardson. "As long as Joey stays healthy, we should be fine."

Brodak had Fallbrook's other individual win. He had a time of 55.76 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly while Escondido junior Jacob Ireland took second place with a time of 55.88 seconds.

"It came down to a touch," Richardson said.

Third place in that race was earned by Fallbrook junior Nathan Carner, who took 59.42 seconds. Maestus had the fifth-place time of 1:01.38.

Fallbrook's 200-yard medley relay team of senior Declan Harrison, Maestus, Brodak, and junior Tanner Curnow had a winning time of 1:43.58. Jameson, Brodak, Batty, and Wallace won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:30.29 with the second-place Ramona relay team finishing in 1:33.20. Curnow, Jameson, Wallace, and Batty needed 3:23.87 to win the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Escondido junior Kevin McCullum won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:04.49, with Maestus finishing second at 1:05.13. Fallbrook junior Aria Firooz took fifth in that race with a time of 1:09.70.

McCullum won the 100-yard freestyle in 49.59 seconds, but three Fallbrook swimmers also earned points in the championship race. Curnow was third with a time of 50.44 seconds, Jameson had the fourth-place time of 51.10 seconds, and Wallace earned fifth place with a 51.75-second swim.

Fallbrook also took third, fourth, and fifth in the individual 200-yard freestyle championship race. Batty completed his laps in 1:50.30, Curnow raced for 1:52.35, and junior Matthew Kuhn had a time of 1:55.39.

Two Fallbrook swimmers reached the finals of the 500-yard freestyle: Harrison placed third at 5:06.26 and senior Chris Bridgeman was fourth with a time of 5:14.25. The winning time of 5:04.31 was posted by San Pasqual's Casey Dang.

Kuhn took fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:00.63 and sophomore Caleb Smedley had the fourth-place 200-yard individual medley time of 2:10.75. The winner of both of those races, Valley Center junior Jeremy Paiz, is Curnow's first cousin.

The Valley League swim championship is based on a combination of standings during league dual meets and schools' positions at the league championship meet. Fallbrook was undefeated in five league dual meets.

"We won the dual meet side of it, so it was nice to win the championship meet and not make it a split," Richardson said.

A non-league loss to Carlsbad deprived Fallbrook of a perfect overall dual meet record. The Warriors were 8-1 during the season.