Pearce sets league meet record in 100-yard butterfly

Fallbrook High School junior Doug Pearce set a Valley League championship meet record in the 100-yard butterfly event.

Pearce had a time of 51.68 seconds at the league meet race April 15 at Fallbrook High School. The previous Valley League championship meet record of 51.89 seconds was set by Ramona's Brandon Powell on May 7, 2016.

"He deserves it. He works really hard," Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson said of Pearce's record.

The second-place swimmer, Joey Cairns of San Marcos, finished in 55.66 seconds. "It was a dominating swim," Richardson said. "He and Brock are both swimming really well, and it really showed in the 100 fly."

Brock Bushnell had Fallbrook's other league championship. Bushnell, who is also a junior, needed 21.96 seconds to complete the 50-yard freestyle. Nathaniel Hon of San Marcos was second in that competition with a time of 22.79 seconds.

"He was in front from beginning to end," Richardson said of Bushnell.

"It was a great race for him," Richardson said. "He's peaking right now and swimming super fast."

The Valley League balanced coronavirus precautions with the desire for a league meet. The diving is always held on a different day than the swim races. Fallbrook had hosted the league diving meet ever since the Warriors joined the Valley League for the 2014-15 season, but because the Fallbrook Union High School District was not allowing spectators and the Ramona Unified School District did not prohibit non-participants Ramona hosted the dive meet.

The Escondido, Mission Hills, and Valley Center swim teams had their races April 14 at the Washington Park pool in Escondido. Fallbrook, Ramona, and San Marcos competed April 15 in Fallbrook. The April 15 swimmers were not informed of the April 14 times. Normally the swim meet consists of preliminary heats with the top swimmers in each event returning for the championship and consolation races; this year there was no separation of preliminaries and finals races and the top 12 finishers in each individual event received team position points.

San Marcos won the league meet with 412 points. Ramona had 280 points for second place. Fallbrook accumulated 211 points. Mission Hills was the fourth-place team with 137 points. Valley Center had 85 points and Escondido totaled 66 points.

The final league standings are based on a combination of positions in dual meets and positions at the league meet. During the regular season Fallbrook lost to San Marcos and Ramona, tied Mission Hills, and defeated Escondido and Valley Center to share third place in the dual meet standings. Finishing ahead of Mission Hills in the league meet gave the Warriors third place overall.

"It was definitely a rebuilding year. Third place is a good finish for us," Richardson said.

"The Valley League this year was strong top to bottom with the addition of Mission Hills and San Marcos," Richardson said. "It was super competitive."

In 2019 San Pasqual, which has been moved out of the Valley League, was the second-place team. Ramona was third two years ago.

"Ramona showed that they were a strong team. It wasn't a fluke when they beat us out at the league meet," Richardson said. "I'm happy with third."

Ramona divers took the top two scores in that event with Mason Sim of San Marcos placing third. Fallbrook senior Donovan Taylor had a score of 182.95 points on his six dives to take fourth place. Fallbrook's other boys diver, freshman Jamison Ewig, was seventh with 105.20 points.

The swim portion begins with the 200-yard medley relay and concludes with the 400-yard freestyle relay. Fallbrook's 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Kenneth Fukunaga, junior Matthew Herbert, junior Tegan Cannon, and freshman Sam Goode placed fourth with a time of 1:44.46. San Marcos won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:15.70 while the Fallbrook quartet of sophomore Ian Ritchie, Pearce, Bushnell, and junior Kai Maestas had the second-place time of 3.17.10.

A meet has three relay races, but Fallbrook was disqualified for a false start during the 200-yard freestyle relay. "We left early," Richardson said.

"That's my fault," Richardson said. "I was coaching them to take a chance."

Up to four swimmers from each school are allowed in each individual race. Bushnell's 50-yard freestyle victory was complemented by two other Warriors earning position points. Herbert had a time of 25.21 seconds for ninth place and Cannon took 12th place for his 25.95-second performance.

Cannon placed seventh in the 100-yard butterfly, which he completed in 1:00.05. The tenth-place swimmer, sophomore John Norman, had a time of 1:10.53.

Bushnell added a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle race which took him 48.60 seconds. Goode placed 11th in that event and had a time of 58.61 seconds.

Maestas took second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:01.67. Herbert completed that event in 1:12.99 for seventh place. A time of 1:20.59 gave freshman John Hodgkinson 11th place.

Four-fifths of a second separated the top three finishers in the 200-yard freestyle. Pearce was the third-place finisher and had a time of 1:44.87. Ritchie was fourth at 1:52.73, Goode placed ninth with a time of 2:10.18, and sophomore Logan Enns had the 11th-place time of 2:17.54.

Maestas placed fourth in the 200-yard individual medley and Norman was tenth in that event.

Ritchie needed 1:00.09 to complete the 100-yard backstroke, which gave him fifth place. Fukunaga had the ninth-place time of 1:10.87. Fallbrook earned 12th-place points in that race due to the 1:16.63 performance of junior Jake Margin.

Enns was the only Fallbrook swimmer to earn points in the 500-yard freestyle. He finished tenth and had a time of 6:08.54.

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