Fallbrook defeats Army-Navy and Escondido Charter in tri-meet

The first Fallbrook High School boys swim meet of 2019 was also the first high school meet for freshman Doug Pearce, who not only won all four of his races including relays but posted CIF meet automatic qualifying times in three of those Feb. 27 events.

Pearce won the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly individual events and was part of Fallbrook’s winning 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay quartets.

“I think that Doug has been working really hard coming into the high school,” Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson said. “He practices hard. He’s very motivated. The hard work and motivation really showed up in his first high school meet.”

The Feb. 27 competition at the Fallbrook High School pool was a tri-meet, which is also referred to as a double dual meet, with Army-Navy Academy and Escondido Charter High School joining Fallbrook. Athletes from all three schools competed in the same race with each team being scored against each of the other two teams. The separate scoring for the two teams who both have the Warriors nickname produced a 109-43 Fallbrook victory over Army-Navy, while Fallbrook prevailed over Escondido Charter by a 111-30 margin.

“It is a starting off point,” Richardson said.

Swimmers qualify for the CIF meet as individuals or relay teams so non-league meets do not impact a school’s postseason participation other than that qualifying times or diving scores can be obtained. The initial meet gave Richardson some idea of where to place his mermen in the Valley League meets.

“Most of our swimmers will end up swimming most of the events this season, and a few of them will focus on a few,” Richardson said.

If only one team has a diver, the diving is not included in the team score although the divers are scored for CIF qualifying purposes. This year a six-dive score of at least 190.00 points will provide automatic qualification for the CIF meet while the consideration standard which allows divers reaching that minimum to compete in the absence of enough higher scores is 160.00 points. Two of Fallbrook’s three divers posted consideration scores: sophomore Carlos Mejia totaled 166.55 points and sophomore and first-year diver Donovan Taylor began his high school career with 161.95 points. The third Fallbrook diver, senior Isai Soto, accumulated 157.10 points.

A school can enter up to three individuals or three relay teams in each race. For individual races all three swimmers can earn position points if they are among the top five finishers. Only two relay quartets can be given position points contingent upon placing in the top three.

A high school meet begins with the 200-yard medley relay race. Richardson fielded an all-senior quartet, an all-junior group and an all-freshman team. The freshmen won the race with Kayden Trafford, Kaimana Maestas, Pearce and Brock Bushnell obtaining automatic CIF meet qualification for their 1 minute, 50.41 second performance.

“We knew our freshmen were fast, and they definitely put their stamp on the season in their very first race,” Richardson said. “It is really good. The future’s bright.”

The same four swimmers who posted a relay event qualifying time do not need to be the four swimmers who compete at the CIF meet. Pearce, Maestas, Bushnell and Trafford comprised the 400-yard freestyle relay team which concluded the meet by winning the race in 3:35.89, which is a consideration mark. Fallbrook also gained consideration status along with first-place points in the 200-yard freestyle relay which took junior Derek Enns, Bushnell, senior Caleb Smedley and junior Cameron Batty 1:37.18.

Pearce won the 200-yard individual medley race while posting an automatic time of 2:03.47. Maestas was the third finisher in that race and had a consideration time of 2:08.82. Pearce had a winning time of 55.64 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly which gives him automatic CIF meet qualification for that event.

A swimmer may compete in up to four events at a meet including relays and up to two individual events, so a swimmer is limited to two individual events at the CIF meet even if he has automatic qualifying times in more than two.

Fallbrook finished first and second in two individual events. Batty won the 100-yard freestyle with an automatic time of 49.83 seconds and Enns had a consideration time of 52.51 seconds. The Maestas brothers had the top two 100-yard backstroke finishes with Kaimana Maestas posting an automatic time of 1:04.91 and senior Tiane Maestas earning consideration status for his 1:07.06 performance.

The first high school win for Bushnell in an individual event was in the 50-yard freestyle, which he swam in 23.22 seconds to give him CIF meet consideration status. Smedley had a consideration time of 1:04.47 to win the 100-yard backstroke.

Owen Hearn did not earn consideration status, but his time of 2:11.94 gave the junior first place in the 200-yard freestyle race. The only race won by a swimmer from another school was the 500-yard freestyle, although junior Joe Moran was faster than the first Army-Navy swimmer in that race which took him 5:44.24.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].