JV boys get varsity swim experience

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The Escondido Charter boys swim team spent part of March 18 at Fallbrook High School for a meet, but the White Tigers didn’t have enough swimmers for junior varsity competition which gave Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson the luxury of allowing his JV swimmers to compete in varsity races.

“They had a very energetic day,” Richardson said.

With victory assured due to Escondido Charter’s lack of depth, Richardson also had a “meet within a meet” in which the Fallbrook swimmers had their own teams and competed against each other. “They had fun,” Richardson said.

The final score was 107-16. Since Escondido Charter does not have a diver, that event was not included in the team score, but Fallbrook dove for CIF qualifying purposes. A score of 202.70 points on six dives gave freshman Felix Alcorn an automatic qualifying score for the CIF meet.

Fallbrook took the top two scoring positions in the 200-yard medley relay which begins a high school meet. Ian Ritchie, Kai Maestas, Tegan Cannon, and freshman Ethan Baur had a winning time of 1:57.33 while Brock Bushnell, Matthew Herbert, Carson Vance, and freshman Connor Ayersman completed their race in 1:59.33.

The Warriors also took first and second in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Brayden Bender, Doug Pearce, sophomore Kameron Lypps, and Sam Goode finished in 1:48.00. The quartet of freshman Jack Lane, John Hodgkinson, Ayersman, and Logan Enns had a time of 2:00.89.

The first individual event in a meet is the 200-yard freestyle, and Fallbrook’s three swimmers swept the top positions. Enns won in 2:18.35; Alcorn took 2:20.16, and Bauer touched his final wall 2:54.69 after the start of the race.

Fallbrook also swept the 100-yard freestyle with Bushnell finishing in 50.72 seconds, Ritchie taking 51.03 seconds, and Bender completing the race in 56.26 seconds.

A Fallbrook sweep of the top three scoring positions also occurred in the final two individual events. Ritchie won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:00.10, which is a CIF meet consideration time, while Goode took 1:10.42 and Ayersman had a time of 1:45.13. Maestas won the 100-yard breaststroke in a consideration time of 1:04.58; Herbert raced for 1:10.56, and Bender was clocked at 1:19.43.

The winning 400-yard freestyle relay team of Maestas, Ritchie, Cannon, and Baur posted a time of 3:52.62. Bushnell won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.19 seconds. Vance was the only swimmer in the 200-yard individual medley but had a consideration time of 2:17.04.

Escondido Charter garnered first-place points for winning the 100-yard butterfly. The 500-yard freestyle race was not contested by either team.