Warriors edge Nighthawks in girls swim meet

Fallbrook High School's girls swim team hosted their Del Norte counterparts March 17, and the Warriors' first team victory of the season was by an 88-82 score.

"It came down to the last relay. We had a couple of DQs in our favor, so that helped a little bit," said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond.

The Del Norte disqualification in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which is the eighth of the 11 events, increased the Fallbrook points lead from two to eight. Fallbrook had an 80-76 lead prior to taking the first-place points in the 400-yard freestyle relay which concluded the meet.

"It was a fun meet," Redmond said. "The girls really stepped up against, I think, a quality team."

Fallbrook will swim in the CIF Division I meet. Del Norte is in Division II, and Redmond expects the Nighthawks to compete for that CIF championship. "They had some very good swimmers, and we got lucky with some fast swims," he said.

In each of the eight individual events, each school can enter up to three swimmers. Six team points are given for the first-place finish, second place is worth five points, third place earns four points, fourth place adds two points, and the fifth-place swimmer obtains one team point. Although a school can enter up to three quartets for each of the three relay races only two of those relay teams from each school can be scored with teams receiving eight points for first place, four points for second, and two points for third.

The league and CIF meets have larger fields, more points positions, and a greater number of points for the top finishes. Individuals rather than teams qualify for the CIF meet, and a swimmer who does not win her dual meet race not only can add position points for her team at the meet but can also qualify for the CIF meet. Fallbrook posted seven automatic times and eight consideration times in the meet against Del Norte.

The meet opened with the 200-yard medley relay. Fallbrook swimmers Ariana Young, Jazmin Patterson, Jordann Heimback, and Taylor Dowden won that race, and their time of 1:55.62 met the automatic qualifying standard for the CIF meet.

The four swimmers who achieve a qualifying time are not required to be that race's participants in the CIF meet. The first-place Fallbrook team in the 400-yard freestyle relay consisted of Heimback, Patterson, Dowden, and Young, and their time of 3:46.06 also gave Fallbrook automatic qualification into the CIF meet for that event.

Dowden won the individual 200-yard freestyle race with an automatic time of 2:02.22. Caitlyn Batty finished third with a consideration time of 2:14.42.

Although the first 200-yard individual medley swimmer to touch the finish wall attends Del Norte, Heimback finished second and her 2:20.61 is an automatic time. Young was fourth in the individual medley and had a consideration time of 2:25.69.

Madalyn Johnson gave Fallbrook first-place points in the 50-yard freestyle with a consideration time of 26.18 seconds. Heimback's winning time of 1:03.72 in the 100-yard butterfly is a consideration time as is Patterson's third-place mark of 1:08.11.

Fallbrook didn't finish first in the 100-yard freestyle but had two consideration times. Ella Hearn completed her laps in 59.02 seconds and Johnson touched the finish wall 59.36 seconds after the race began.

The Warriors and Nighthawks were tied after the 100-yard freestyle race. Although Del Norte took first place in the 500-yard freestyle, Sarah Draves was second at 6:04.19; Hearn had the third-place time of 6:04.28; and Sierra Peterson was fourth with a 6:24.73 performance. That gave Fallbrook a 9-7 points advantage for that race and the two-point lead. "That's when things changed," Redmond said.

Two of Del Norte's three 200-yard freestyle relay teams were disqualified while the other Nighthawks team finished second. Fallbrook's two teams placed first and third to give the Warriors a 10-4 points advantage for that event. "That gave us additional breathing room," Redmond said.

Batty, Draves, Hearn, and Johnson had a winning time of 1:50.25. Natalie Travers, Ali Eiogo, Sommer Van Haeren, and Gabby Vazzana finished in 2:04.66. Both are consideration times, although the Warriors will only be allowed one relay team in each event at the CIF meet.

Young won the 100-yard backstroke with an automatic time of 1:01.04. The Warriors had two non-winning but automatic times in the 100-yard breaststroke with Dowden taking second at 1:11.12 and Patterson finishing in 1:13.32 for third.

Fallbrook also had a non-league home meet March 22, although Carlsbad was on the winning end of the 120-50 final score and the Lancers won nine of 11 events. Dowden won the 100-yard freestyle and Heimback, Hearn, Dowden, and Young finished first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.