Six girls' swimmers lose high school conclusion to season

The 2020 Fallbrook High School girls’ swim team included six seniors whose high school careers were cut short by the closure of the school and the cancellation of CIF spring sports.

Cindy Buenrostro, Anna Draves, Lucy Goode, Rebekah Kehl, Rose Khattar and Sophia Wallace all saw their final high school seasons end early.

“It’s sad that I don’t get to see them finish out their whole season and their high school career,” Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond said.

The Warriors won all three of their dual meets before the season was canceled.

“I thought they were doing very well and things were starting to progress very well,” Redmond said.

The cancellation of the season also eliminated the league and CIF meets.

“I feel sad for them that they’re not going to have that opportunity and be able to go out with some excitement and fanfare,” Redmond said.

Redmond has not ruled out having a postseason ceremony.

“Hopefully there are ways we can make it up to them and do something,” he said.

Regardless of whether there is a formal ceremony, all six of the seniors will receive varsity letters.

“They’re going to be able to earn their varsity letters because of what they did,” Redmond said.

“All six of them participated in the varsity meets,” Redmond said. “All of them did score.”

The normal procedure for earning letters involves scoring points at varsity meets. All six seniors finished at least third in at least one individual event.

The loss of the remainder of the season also likely ended the Fallbrook High School career of sophomore exchange student Aina Piza-Serra, who has returned to Spain.

This was Kehl’s first varsity season, although she had been on the Warriors’ junior varsity team during her first three high school years. Buenrostro, Draves and Wallace were also with the Warriors for four years.

Goode was at Classical Academy as a freshman and sophomore before joining the Fallbrook program as a junior. Khattar transferred to Fallbrook from Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa during her junior year but did not swim for the Warriors in 2019.

None of those seniors plans to swim in college. Buenrostro, who has not yet selected a school, is a nationally ranked fencer and intends to compete in that sport at the college level.

Draves and Goode were this year’s team captains. The cancellation of the season also impacts the selection of the 2021 captains.

“Usually we do that at the end of the year,” Redmond said. “I think that’s going to be interesting who ends up being selected as captain for next year.”

The team captain is not necessarily a senior.

“I’ll put something out for them to vote,” Redmond said.

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