Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

FAST U16 water polo team 19th at Junior Olympics

The Fallbrook Associated Swim Team's under-16 water polo team placed 19th among the 62 Invitational division squads at the Junior Olympics tournament, July 20-23, in Orange County.

The FAST squad coached by Doug Pearce and Austan Farkas won four games and lost four matches at the tournament.

"We did well," Farkas said. "I knew the kids were working hard, but I wasn't expecting to do as well as we did. Even the games we lost it felt like we were in contention for all of those."

FAST played in a regional qualifying tournament, June 17-23, and placed 13th among the 19 teams in the qualifying tournament. FAST had a 3-3 record at the qualifying tournament.

"They worked hard to win those games they won," Pearce said. "I'm very proud that they were able to qualify."

The top four teams at the qualifying tournament were in the Championship division for the Junior Olympics, the next four teams were in the Classic division, and five additional teams were in the Invitational division.

The lone 16-year-old on the FAST team was unable to play in the qualifying tournament.

"Basically we qualified for invitational and our team was all 15 and 14 year olds," Pearce said. "We qualified with all underclassmen. All those teams we played, most of the starters are all 16."

Including the 16-year-old FAST had 14 players on the roster for the qualifying tournament.

During the qualifying tournament FAST lost 10-4 matches to Coastal Del Sur and to Del Mar B and a 9-4 contest to Southern.

"We were pretty much in every game until about halftime," Pearce said. "The other teams picked up on what our weaknesses were and they pulled away."

FAST also had 9-7 victories over Poway Valley and against Carlsbad C in the qualifying tournament. The other FAST win was a 23-2 triumph against Moonlight.

The qualification for the Junior Olympics was the first for a FAST boys water polo team.

"That's pretty cool," Farkas said.

The 16-year-old was available for the Junior Olympics tournament and was one of 13 FAST players to make the trip to Orange County.

FAST began Junior Olympics play with three July 20 games: an 8-7 loss to the Chelsea team from Connecticut, an 11-9 victory against San Jose, and an 8-6 triumph over the 46-241 team based in Los Angeles. Both of the July 21 FAST competitions were against Texas teams; Villow defeated FAST by a 9-5 score while the Fallbrook squad won an 11-3 game against Sharks. FAST lost two July 22 matches against Los Angeles teams; NCS prevailed in a 12-10 game and 680 was on the preferred end of the 13-7 final score. FAST closed out play July 23 and was victorious against Riverside in the 12-7 game.

"I'm proud of them," Farkas said.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/26/2024 03:57