3-0 start means Warrior mermen performing well

The team scores at the CIF swim meet are based on the results for the swimmers and relay teams who qualify for the CIF meet as individuals rather than as a team and nonleague meet records have no effect on the league championship, so coaches use nonleague meets to assess their swimmers while the athletes can post qualifying times or diving scores at those meets.

Fallbrook High School's boys team finished the first week of competition with a 3-0 record, and the implications for the league championship are from the individual benchmarks while the meets' effect on the Warriors' CIF meet performance involves qualifying times and scores.

"So far everyone's doing pretty good," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

The Warriors opened their season March 4 with a home meet against Vista and won that by a 107-52 margin. "The returning kids for the most part are ahead of where they were last year, so it was good," Richardson said.

If only one school in a dual meet has a diver the diving is not part of the team score, but the diver can compete for CIF meet qualifying purposes. Fallbrook junior Donovan Taylor accumulated 217.40 points on his six dives, which exceeded the automatic threshold of 190.00 points.

Vista opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay in an automatic time of 1:48.52, but sophomore Kayden Trafford, senior Owen Hearn, junior Caden Eidson, and senior Jackson Richards had a consideration time of 1:54.30.

Fallbrook freshman Ian Ritchie won the meet's first individual race, completing the 200-yard freestyle in 1:59.05 for a consideration time.

The Warriors had the top two 200-yard individual medley finishes; sophomore Doug Pearce had an automatic qualifying time of 2:03.63 and Trafford finished in 2:18.54 for consideration status.

Vista's Hayden Nightingale won two individual races but, in both cases, Fallbrook had the next two finishers and those swimmers posted qualifying times. The 50-yard freestyle included consideration times of 23.43 seconds for senior Derek Enns and 23.54 seconds for senior Joe Moran. Pearce had an automatic qualifying time of 55.24 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly while Eidson had a consideration time of 1:00.60.

Enns won the 100-yard freestyle with a consideration time of 52.27 seconds. Vista's Ky Calder took second place, but Moran's third-place time of 52.52 seconds is a consideration mark. A time of 5:30.45 in the 500-yard freestyle gave senior Cameron Batty first place and consideration status.

Vista won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:34.30, but the Fallbrook quartet of Trafford, Moran, Pearce, and Enns had a time of 1:34.93 for automatic entry into the CIF meet.

Trafford won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:03.29 and Ritchie finished second with a time of 1:05.87. Hearn had the first-place time of 1:12.32 in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Fallbrook concluded the meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay. Batty, Moran, Enns, and Pearce had a consideration time of 3:33.52.

"It was good to get the ball rolling at that meet," Richardson said.

"It's a good opportunity to see where the boys are," Richardson said. "The kids responded well."

A swimmer is limited to four events, including diving, in one meet and can compete in no more than two individual events. "There's a long way to go as far as giving every kid an opportunity to swim different events," Richardson said.

The March 6 home meet gave Richardson and his swimmers that opportunity. "We moved some kids around," he said.

In a tri-meet, swimmers from all three schools compete in the same race and each school is scored against each of the other two schools. Fallbrook obtained a 105-46 victory over Escondido Charter and a 111-41 win against Army-Navy Academy.

"I had good times," Richardson said.

Richardson also had one diving score; Taylor accumulated 239.80 points. Batty, sophomore Kai Maestas, Pearce and Moran won the 200-yard medley relay with an automatic qualifying time of 1:47.13. Trafford finished second in the 200-yard freestyle race but with a consideration time of 2:02.78.

The 200-yard individual medley provided freshman Jonathan Nelson with his first high school swimming win. Nelson's time was 2:35.82. Enns won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.75 seconds.

Fallbrook had not only the top two finishes in the 100-yard freestyle but also two qualifying times. Batty won that race with an automatic time of 49.28 seconds while Moran had a consideration time of 51.81 seconds. Pearce finished second in the 500-yard freestyle but had an automatic time of 5:05.00.

Enns, Moran, Trafford, and Batty gave Fallbrook first place and an automatic time of 1:35.50 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The 100-yard backstroke was won by senior Chase Glick, whose time was 1:10.61.

Maestas posted an automatic time of 1:03.10 to win the 100-yard breaststroke. The winning 400-yard freestyle relay time of 3:43.35 was achieved by Eidson, senior Caden McCormies, Trafford and Pearce.