Warriors win boys swim league championship

Fallbrook High School’s boys won the 2019 Valley League swim championship.

The formula to determine final positions in the league standings is based equally on standings positions in league dual meets and position points at the league championship meet. The Warriors won all five of their Valley League dual meets and also had the first place total at the league meet.

“It’s a good achievement to win the league,” Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson said. “There were a couple of real strong teams.”

Fallbrook High School’s pool hosted the league meet which consisted of swim preliminaries April 24, diving April 25 and swim finals April 26. Each school was allowed up to four swimmers in each individual event and up to four divers. Fallbrook has a six-lane pool, so four preliminaries swimming heats for each event were held and those with the top six times in each event advanced to the championship final, the next six fastest swimmers participated in the consolation final and those with the 13th through 18th preliminaries times swam in the “C” final. Schools were also allowed two quartets for each relay event, although only one of those could advance to the final. Position points were given for the six positions in each relay race and the 18 positions in the individual swim finals. Although the league did not have 18 boys divers position points for diving were also based on 18 places.

“It was a good competition for our boys,” Richardson said.

Fallbrook accumulated 634 points. San Pasqual High School had the second-place total of 500 points. Ramona High School was third with 492 points. Classical Academy took fourth place by scoring 359 points. Escondido High School had the fifth-place score of 192 points. Valley Center High School totaled 147 points.

The league’s individual champions were determined by league meet performance alone. Kai Maestas celebrated his 15th birthday by winning the 100-yard breaststroke championship race, and Fallbrook also had the first-place 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay teams.

Maestas, who is a freshman, had to defeat his own brother to win the breaststroke championship. Kai Maestas had a time of 1 minute 3.73 seconds, and senior Tiane Maestas had the second-place time of 1:04.60.

“They’ve been battling it out all year,” Richardson said.

Last year Tiane Maestas also placed second in the league championship breaststroke race with a time of 1:05.22, so the second-place finish this year was his second in a row.

“His little brother came in and did a good job against him,” Richardson said.

Classical Academy junior Jagger Butler finished third at 1:06.33. Fourth place was shared by Fallbrook junior Owen Hearn and San Pasqual sophomore Jacob Rewa, who both touched the final wall 1:09.49 after the start of the race. Richardson said that Hearn dropped six seconds off his time the previous week.

“It’s a stroke we’re swimming very well this year,” Richardson said of three Warriors finishing among the top four in the breaststroke.

The breaststroke “C” final was won by Fallbrook freshman Roman Honarvar, whose time was 1:18.12.

During the 200-yard medley relay senior Caleb Smedley swam the backstroke, Tiane Maestas was in the pool for the breaststroke, freshman Doug Pearce was Fallbrook’s butterfly representative and junior Joe Moran anchored the race with the freestyle stroke. Their winning time was 1:43.06.

“Each team depending on how deep they are chooses which relays they’ll stack with their top four,” Richardson said. “We had a very fast swimmer in each of those.”

The second place time of 1:45.56 was swam by Classical Academy.

“To win by that much shows the depth of our team,” Richardson said.

A participant may compete in up to four events and is limited to two individual events. A swimmer can also dive if they does not exceed the event limit.

The final event of a swim meet is the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Fallbrook team of freshman Brock Bushnell, Pearce, Kai Maestas and junior Derek Enns won that race in 3:22.50.

“That’s such a special event to finish the meet strong,” Richardson said.

San Pasqual had the second-place time of 3:23.89. The Golden Eagles led after 100 yards, but Pearce gave the Warriors a lead of 0.02 seconds at the halfway point.

“San Pasqual was a very strong team this year, gave us our biggest challenge,” Richardson said.

Fallbrook won last year’s 400-yard freestyle relay with three 2018 seniors and current junior Cameron Batty, who has been battling a shoulder injury this year. This year three of the Fallbrook swimmers were freshmen. Enns did not compete in a relay race at last year’s league meet.

“He was so excited he forgot to put his goggles on,” Richardson said.

That didn’t keep Enns from holding off the San Pasqual anchor. Ramona had the third-place time of 3:24.55.

Ramona prevented Fallbrook from sweeping the relay races. The Bulldogs’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of junior Nathan Duffie, sophomore Christian Wright, senior Frankie Trout and senior Dawson Webster finished the race in 1:30.83. Enns, Moran, Tiane Maestas and Bushnell finished second at 1:31.26. The Warriors led after 150 yards before Webster closed the gap.

“They just needed a little space, and we weren’t able to create it, hold them off,” Richardson said.

Fallbrook had the faster 200-yard freestyle time in the preliminaries at 1:32.48. Ramona’s preliminaries time was 1:36.35. Fallbrook’s time in the final was a season best for the Warriors.

Webster also won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle races, and in both events, Fallbrook took second, third and fifth. Enns and Bushnell shared second place in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 22.35 seconds. Webster won that event 21.75 seconds after the starter’s gun was fired. Moran was fifth at 23.05 seconds. A time of 23.67 seconds in the consolation final earned junior Chase Glick eighth place and gave Fallbrook those position points.

Ironically the 50-yard freestyle preliminaries also included a tie between the top two Fallbrook swimmers. Bushnell and Moran each completed their two laps in 23.05 seconds to share third place, and Enns had the fifth-place time of 23.12 seconds.

Webster won the 100-yard freestyle by more than a second; his time was 48.25 seconds and Enns finished second with a swim of 49.69 seconds. In that race Enns barely beat out Bushnell, whose third place time was 49.70 seconds. Moran was fifth at 50.80 seconds and Hearn provided 10th place points for his 53.21-second performance.

“We had about three swimmers in the finals in most of the events,” Richardson said. “That also illustrated the strength of our team.”

Valley Center sophomore Nathan Paiz won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:00.52, but Kai Maestas was second at 2:04.89, freshman Kayden Trafford took third place with a 2:13.90 swim and senior Joseph Wiegel gave Fallbrook sixth place points for his time of 2:15.89. Fallbrook added 14th place points in the “C” race when freshman John Norman finished in 2:44.62.

Paiz is no stranger to Fallbrook High School. Fallbrook’s girls divers include Chiara Curnow, whose father is the brother of Paiz’s mother. Curnow’s two older brothers swam for Fallbrook; Tristan Curnow is a 2015 Fallbrook High School graduate and Tanner Curnow graduated in 2018 and anchored last year’s winning 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Fallbrook also had three swimmers in the 100-yard butterfly championship race. The battle for second place between Ramona sophomore Jason Holden and Fallbrook senior Chase Williamson ended with Holden taking second place at 58.30 seconds and Williamson finishing third with a time of 58.31 seconds. Tiane Maestas finished in 58.54 seconds for fifth place and sophomore Caden Eidson completed his laps in 58.74 seconds for sixth place. Eleventh place points were earned by senior Mo Abdelrahman, whose time was 1:03.29.

Two of the championship races involved only two Fallbrook swimmers but with one of the Warriors taking second place. San Pasqual junior Casey Dang had the winning 200-yard freestyle time of 1:44.78. Pearce was second at 1:47.34 and Smedley placed fifth with a time of 1:56.91. A time of 2:00.69 gave junior Jackson Richards ninth place while junior Caden McCormies finished the “C” race in 2:07.94 for 15th place.

San Pasqual junior Ethan Doan won the 100-yard backstroke in 57.09 seconds. Smedley took second place for his 59.53-second swim, and Wiegel posted the fifth-place time of 1:03.08. Glick took eighth place at 1:05.67, and Eidson’s time of 1:11.15 gave Fallbrook 18th place points.

Fallbrook’s first finisher in the 500-yard freestyle was Pearce, whose time of 4:49.57 gave him third place. Trafford took sixth place at 5:26.16. McCormies swam his race in 5:46.67 for 12th place. Richards completed his laps in 5:55.73 to take 14th place.

This year’s Valley League meet was the fifth since the Warriors joined the league but the first in which a Fallbrook boy did not win the diving event. Last year then-senior Joseph Greenwood won the league championship with Rewa placing second and Jacob Nelson, who is now a Ramona junior, posting the third-place score. Nelson won this year’s meet with 237.90 points on six dives, Rewa took second by accumulating 221.20 points and Fallbrook sophomore Donovan Taylor scored 202.05 points for third place. Taylor is a first year diver.

Fallbrook also had the seventh through ninth diving points positions: junior Isai Soto totaled 157.10 points, sophomore Hayden Orchard accumulated 179.40 points and senior Carlos Mejia finished with 165.60 points.

“I have a ways to go to catch up to where we were,” Richardson said of the diving. “Hopefully they put in the time to move up.”