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Fallbrook High boys swim to league championship

Fallbrook High School’s boys took first place in only two of the 12 events at the Valley League swim meet, but the Warriors obtained enough position points to capture the team league championship.

The Warriors accumulated 612 position points. San Pasqual High School was second with 443 points, Ramona High School had the third-place amount of 388 points, Escondido High School totaled 325 points for fourth place, Classical Academy took fifth place with 296 points and Valley Center High School had 225 points.

“It shows our depth,” Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson said.

During regular-season dual meets, each team is allowed up to three swimmers or divers in each of the nine individual events and up to two quartets in each of the three relay races. The league meet allowed up to four swimmers or divers in each individual event, and only one relay team for each school was scored for each race.

The league meet consisted of swim preliminaries, May 2, and diving, May 3, as well as the swim finals, May 4. Fallbrook High School hosted the Valley League schools all three of those days. Four preliminary heats for each individual swim event were held in Fallbrook’s six-lane pool.

The swimmers with the top six preliminaries times in each event advanced to the championship final, and two consolation finals were also contested. Position points were given for those 18 places.

“A lot of times we had three swimmers out of six in the finals,” Richardson said. “That’s definitely the difference for us.”

Fallbrook’s first-place results were in the initial event and the last event. Joseph Greenwood, who was a senior at Oasis High School and dove for Fallbrook High School under the CIF San Diego Section’s Multi-School Teams Status policy which allows athletes from certain schools to compete for a specified other team, had a score of 316.20 points on six dives. That also became the new school record; he broke his own six-dive school record of 290.55 points set during an April 26, 2017, home dual meet against Valley Center.

San Pasqual freshman Jacob Rewa had the second-place diving score of 212.00 points, and Ramona sophomore Jacob Nelson was third with 207.70 points. Fallbrook freshman Hayden Orchard earned fifth-place team points for his score of 165.60; sophomore Isai Soto was sixth with 162.85 points and junior Carlos Mejia accumulated 136.40 points for seventh place.

A high school swim meet concludes with the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Fallbrook quartet of sophomore Cameron Batty, senior Greg Jameson, senior Matthew Kuhn and senior Tanner Curnow won that race in 3 minutes, 18.28 seconds.

“The boys did a great job. They all swam their best time of the year,” Richardson said. “I was truthfully expecting to win two relays. Ramona, they were geared up and had some really good sprinters.”

Ramona junior Dawson Webster, who won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle individual races, anchored the Bulldogs’ 200-yard freestyle relay team which also included senior Josh Pradels, sophomore Nathan Duffie and junior Frankie Trout. Ramona had a winning time of 1:30.16. Curnow, Jameson, senior Gage Oppenborn and Batty took second place at 1:30.81.

“It was very close,” Richardson said.

The 400-yard freestyle relay battle between Fallbrook and Ramona wasn’t as close. Duffie, Pradels, Trout and Webster finished second with a time of 3:24.59.

Escondido seniors Truman Irion, Kevin McCollum, Jacob Ireland and Matt Quintero won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:41.50. Kuhn, junior Tiane Maestas, junior Chase Williamson and Oppenborn had the second-place time of 1:46.62.

Fallbrook had three swimmers in the championship final for three different events. Curnow finished second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.65 seconds. Webster had a winning time of 47.90 seconds, and Duffie placed third at 49.88 seconds. Sophomore Derek Enns was fourth at 51.21 seconds, and Jameson finished fifth with a 52.46-second swim. Fallbrook added 12th-place points when senior Anthony Vazzana completed his laps in 55.87 seconds.

The Warriors took third, fourth and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle. Kuhn finished in 1:55.01, senior Chase Norfolk had a time of 1:56.86 and junior Blake Johnson touched the final wall 1:59.39 after the start of the race. A time of 2:00.31 gave sophomore Jackson Richards 10th place.

Batty had a 50-yard freestyle time of 22.55 seconds for third place; Curnow earned fourth place for his 23.09-second performance and Jameson finished in 23.42 seconds for sixth place. Oppenborn took ninth place with a time of 23.61 seconds.

Four of the top eight finishers in the 100-yard backstroke were Fallbrook swimmers. A time of 58.82 seconds gave junior Caleb Smedley second place, Kuhn had the third-place time of 59.11 seconds, senior Bryce Sammons-Trafford won the first consolation race in 1:02.21 to take seventh place and junior Joseph Weigel earned eighth place with a time of 1:04.92.

Maestas had a time of 1:05.22 in the 100-yard breaststroke for second place, senior Aria Firooz received seventh place after winning the first consolation race in 1:06.59 and senior Jacob Cain had the eighth-place performance of 1:08.44.

“Perhaps the best race of the entire meet,” Richardson said, as Valley Center freshman Nathan Paiz, who is Curnow’s first cousin, won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:03.01. San Pasqual sophomore Casey Dang finished second at 5:03.23, and Batty had the third-place time of 5:03.52.

“That was close for the 500 free,” Richardson said of the half-second difference between first and third. “It kind of came down to who had that last perfect stroke to touch out the other guys.”

Richards won the 500-yard freestyle’s first consolation race with a time of 5:35.52 to give Fallbrook seventh-place points, and sophomore Caden McCormies had a winning time of 6:10.55 in the second consolation race for 13th place.

The 100-yard freestyle included a first consolation race win by senior Nathan Carner along with two swimmers in the championship race. Maestas placed third with a time of 57.49 seconds, Williamson was fourth at 58.35 seconds and a time of 58.48 seconds gave Carner seventh place.

Smedley placed third in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:07.52 performance; Weigel had the fifth-place time of 2:15.63 and Sammons-Trafford took ninth place 2:20.10 after the consolation race began.

The Valley League championship was the fourth in four years for Fallbrook.

“We’re always proud of how we perform in league,” Richardson said. “Our boys did a good job.”

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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