Warriors win Iron Man division at Ironman Relays

The Ironman Relays swim meet was held April 6 at La Jolla High School’s Coggan Pool, and Fallbrook High School’s boys won the Iron Man division.

The Ironman Relays meet has coed divisions as well as boys and girls divisions, so the overall positions for a school are for both boys and girls. Fallbrook placed third overall in the meet.

“That was a surprise,” Fallbrook boys coach Bill Richardson said.

“I thought it was great. We didn’t have everybody and we couldn’t fill all the events,” Fallbrook girls coach Sean Redmond said. “I’m proud of what the swimmers did.”

In order to have relay teams for all of the events a school needs at least 18 boys and 18 girls. The Warriors did not contest three of the five coed Four division races.

Four swimmers from each school compete in each Four Man, Four Maiden and coed Four event. Two swimmers have one stint apiece in the pool in the Two Man and Two Maiden races. The Iron man, Iron Maiden and coed Iron divisions involve two swimmers from each team who alternate the four portions.

“That was one of our better finishes in years, and it’s just great to see the kids having some good success,” Richardson said of third place overall.

In addition to winning the Iron Man division, Fallbrook was second in the Four Man division, third in the Iron Maiden, fifth in the Four Maiden, seventh in the Two Man, 10th in the coed Iron, 13th in the Two Maiden and 13th in the coed Four despite only competing in two of those races.

“We were doing very well,” Richardson said.

Fallbrook’s results in the Iron Man division consisted of two first-place finishes, a second-place finish and two fifth-place results.

“I knew we had a good shot,” Richardson said of winning the division.

The Fallbrook duo of freshman Brock Bushnell and junior Derek Enns won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute 38.30 seconds.

“I knew that would be a good relay,” Richardson said. “We did really well there.”

The Warriors’ other win in the Iron Man division was by seniors Caleb Smedley and Joseph Wiegel, who had a time of 1:56.81 in the 200-yard backstroke.

“For them to go that was really good,” Richardson said.

A pair of brothers, freshman Kai Maestas and senior Tiane Maestas, had the second-place time of 2:01.16 in the 200-yard breaststroke. The 200-yard butterfly team of senior Chase Williamson and junior Jackson Richards took fifth place with a time of 1:57.89. Fifth place in the 200-yard individual medley was achieved by sophomore Caden Eidson and junior Owen Hearn, who took 2:02.62.

The Four Man races included a victory in the 200-yard medley relay by the Fallbrook quartet of Smedley, Tiane Maestas, Williamson and junior Joe Moran. Their time was 1:47.98.

“We’ve been doing very well in that relay all season,” Richardson said. “They all swam some best times.”

Richardson used four freshman for the 500-yard freestyle relay. Kayden Trafford, Bushnell, Kai Maestas and Doug Pearce took second place with a time of 4:31.82. The 400-yard individual medley squad of Bushnell, Kai Maestas, Pearce and Wiegel had the third-place time of 4:05.09. Enns, Richards, junior Chase Glick and Moran took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay and had a time of 1:38.63.

The order of the swimmers in the wild card race is selected before the swimmers for each relay leg being shown a card with the stroke to be used and the distance to be swam. Smedley, Williamson, Wiegel and Tiane Maestas were Fallbrook’s contingent, and they finished in 2:27.87 for fifth place.

Fallbrook’s other first-place finish at the Ironman Relays meet was in the Iron Maiden division; sophomore Paris Dowden and senior Kendra Donoghue had a 200-yard breaststroke time of 2:22.93. “That was a close race. It was exciting to watch,” Redmond said.

The Iron Maiden races also included freshman Jocelyn Jones and Dowden placing second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:20.91. The Warriors took third in the 200-yard freestyle; senior Kaitlyn Callagher and Donoghue finished that race in 1:54.41.

Dowden, Jones, Donoghue and junior Sophia Wallace represented Fallbrook in the Four Maiden division’s 250-yard wild card race and placed third with a time of 2:36.99. Callagher, junior Ely Linberg, junior Lucy Goode and Wallace had the fifth-place time of 5:28.87 in the 500-yard freestyle relay. Callagher, Linberg, junior Anna Draves and Wallace completed the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:56.86 for fifth place.

Moran and Enns were in the Two Man division for the 100-yard freestyle and had the second-place time of 46.71 seconds. Richards and Eidson swam the 100-yard butterfly and finished sixth with a time of 56.06 seconds. Glick and Trafford posted a 100-yard backstroke time of 1:00.16 for eighth place.

The coed Iron races included third place and a time of 1:50.61 in the 200-yard butterfly for Pearce and Jones and a fifth-place 200-yard backstroke finish which took Glick and Draves 2:11.33.

Fallbrook had a pair of 10th-place finishes in the Two Maiden competition: junior Trinity Cannon and senior Alex Jeppesen completed the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:47.42, while sophomore Kassidy Ewig and freshman Erin Burnett-Dahl had a time of 1:18.90 in the 100-yard butterfly.

Eighth place in the coed Four division’s 400-yard individual medley was obtained by Hearn, sophomore Emma Goode, Eidson and Draves. Fallbrook’s other contested coed Four race was the 250-yard wild card contest in which Hearn, Burnett-Dahl, Trafford and freshman Grace Goode had the 11th place time of 3:09.82.