Warrior mermen win 10 of 11 events in season opener

Fallbrook High School's boys swim team opened its season Feb. 25 at home against El Camino, and the Warriors took first-place points in 10 of 11 events during the 97-72 victory over the Wildcats.

"It was fun to have all the kids back and competing and enjoying themselves and trying to do it as safely as we could," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

The coronavirus outbreak ended the 2020 season early, so the Warriors only had three meets last year and the 2021 season opener was Fallbrook's first meet since hosting Rancho Buena Vista on March 10, 2020. Competing in a chlorinated swimming pool with minimal if any spectator presence has little risk of spreading coronavirus, so swimming was one of the first sports the CIF allowed for 2020-21.

Because the compressed 2020-21 season combines the normal fall, winter, and spring seasons into two seasons some athletes must choose between sports. Fallbrook opened the 2021 swim season with 14 swimmers and two divers. "Much fewer than normal," Richardson said.

Normally the Fallbrook program has between 25 and 30 boys swimmers. Richardson added that some boys who plan to swim have not yet received clearance.

The 2020 Fallbrook swim team included seven seniors, one exchange student from Denmark, and two underclassmen who have transferred to other schools. This year the only senior is diver Donovan Taylor. Two Fallbrook freshmen competed at the varsity level Feb. 25. "There's some good potential in some of the younger kids," Richardson said.

The Valley League for swimming this year consists of Fallbrook, Escondido, Mission Hills, Mission Vista, Ramona, and Valley Center. The non-league match against El Camino will have no impact on the league championship.

One goal the Fallbrook squad had Feb. 25 was to defeat the Wildcats. "We were going to compete. We were going to try to win," Richardson said.

In addition to the opportunity to post qualifying marks, a non-league meet also allows coaches to evaluate the swimmers and divers. "I didn't know where a lot of the newer guys would be. It was a good chance to see where we're starting," Richardson said.

Fallbrook High School in normal times has a sixth-period aquatics class. "Definitely didn't have that advantage," Richardson said.

If only one team in a dual meet has a diver the diving is not included in the team score but the diver's score may be used for CIF qualifying purposes. El Camino didn't have any divers. Taylor had an automatic qualifying score of 216.55 points for his six dives. Fallbrook also had a junior varsity diver at the meet.

Each school is allowed up to three swimmers in each of the eight individual events with six team points being awarded for first place, four points for second, three points for third, two points for fourth, and one point for fifth. A school can have up to two quartets in each relay race which gives eight points for first, four for second, and two for third. "They did a little bit better than we did as far as their second, third swimmers," Richardson said.

A swimmer can participate in up to four events and in up to two individual events. Fallbrook's first-place sweep of the eight individual events included two wins apiece by junior Brock Bushnell, junior Kai Maestas, junior Doug Pearce, and sophomore Ian Ritchie. "We have four very strong swimmers," Richardson said.

In terms of team points contributed, Bushnell, Maestas, and Pearce were the top freshman trio at the 2019 CIF San Diego Section meet. "They definitely showed a long time ago that they were going to be really strong swimmers for us for a lot of years," Richardson said.

Ritchie, Maestas, Pearce, and Bushnell opened the 2021 season by winning the 200-yard medley relay in 2:16.55, which is an automatic qualifying time for the CIF meet. Bushnell, Pearce, Ritchie, and Maestas closed the meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay and posting an automatic qualifying time of 3:31.76.

The Wildcats' sole win was in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Fallbrook quartet of sophomore Jonathan Nelson, junior Tegan Cannon, sophomore Kenneth Fukunaga, and sophomore John Norman finished second, and their time of 1:50.72 provided CIF meet consideration status.

Pearce won the 100-yard butterfly with an automatic time of 54.31 seconds and had a consideration time of 1:55.21 in his 200-yard freestyle victory. Bushnell had a 50-yard freestyle time of 22.57 seconds for automatic qualification as well as first place, and his winning time of 50.10 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle is a consideration standard.

Maestas won the 100-yard breaststroke with a consideration time of 1:06.04, and he had a consideration time of 2:10.15 in the 200-yard individual medley in which Fallbrook freshman Sam Goode finished second at 2:39.91. Both of Ritchie's wins produced consideration times; he completed the 500-yard freestyle race in 5:19.55 and the 100-yard backstroke event in 1:02.21.