Jones has four automatic times in high school debut

Fallbrook High School freshman Jocelyn Jones obtained CIF meet automatic qualifying times in all four of her races at her first high school swim meet, Feb. 27, at Fallbrook High School.

Jones won the 50-yard freestyle with an automatic qualifying time of 25.62 seconds. Although she finished second in the 100-yard butterfly her time of 1:02.81 is an automatic standard. Jones anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay team which won the race in 1:47.81 to give Fallbrook automatic CIF meet status in that event and also anchored the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team which posted an automatic qualifying time of 3:59.93.

“She definitely has been training hard,” Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond said.

Jones has competed in club competition but had not previously swam in a dual meet.

“She didn’t know what to expect from a high school dual meet,” Redmond said. “She came in with an idea how fast she wanted to go.”

In a high school dual meet each school is allowed to enter up to three swimmers in each of the eight individual events, and position points are given for the top five finishes. Each school can enter up to three quartets for each of the three relay races although only two of those can be given position points which are awarded for the first three finishes.

Fallbrook hosted Escondido Charter, Feb. 27, and defeated the White Tigers by a 100-69 score.

“It was definitely a good start to our season to see where we’re at,” Redmond said.

If only one school at a dual meet has a diver the diving is not included in the team score, but the divers are scored for CIF qualifying purposes. This year the CIF meet automatic standard for six dives has been raised from 185.00 to 190.00 while the consideration minimum score was increased from 145.00 to 160.00.

“They made it a lot harder this year,” Redmond said.

The increased qualification scores meant that only one of Fallbrook’s three varsity divers – one freshman was a junior varsity diver – posted a qualifying mark. Consideration status was earned by senior Kelly Hanlon, whose six dives totaled 177.35 points. Meeting last year’s consideration score but not this year’s were junior Kassidy Ewig, who accumulated 154.80 points, and junior Chiara Curnow, whose score was 150.00.

The 200-yard medley relay race began the meet. Fallbrook’s winning time of 2:20.40, which gives the Warriors consideration status in that event, was achieved by junior Maggie Walker, freshman Grace Goode, sophomore Paige Mansell and senior Kaitlyn Callagher. Goode and Jones are the only two freshman who began the 2019 season on this year’s Fallbrook varsity. Redmond used sophomore Paris Dowden, junior Sophia Wallace, senior Kendra Donoghue and Jones in the same order for both freestyle relays.

Fallbrook took first and second in two events. Jones beat out Donoghue, whose time of 26.95 seconds gave her consideration status, in the 50-yard freestyle. The 100-yard freestyle was won by Callagher with a consideration time of 1:00.39 while Wallace took second place with a consideration time of 1:00.48.

Dowden won the 100-yard backstroke race with an automatic time of 1:14.84. Donoghue finished third in that race and obtained consideration status after completing her laps in 1:16.35.

The automatic qualifying standard in the 200-yard individual medley is 2:22.00, so Dowden settled for a win and a consideration mark when she finished in 2:22.01.

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