Warriors girls dominate first two swim meets

A thunderstorm March 15 canceled Fallbrook High School’s swim meet against Valley Center that afternoon, but the Fallbrook girls began the season with two league victories.

The Warriors opened their season March 5 at home against Mission Hills and won that 111-54 meet. The March 7 home win over Pacific Ridge had a 123-41 score.

“It was good to see where we’re at and what we can do,” said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond.

A school can enter up to three swimmers or divers in each individual event. Each school can have three quartets for each relay race, although no more than two relay teams from a school are scored.

A swimmer or diver is limited to no more than four events at a meet and no more than two individual events, and a diver may also swim if she does not exceed the maximum number of events at a meet.

Fallbrook has 33 girls, including two who dive exclusively and three who both swim and dive, so the Warriors can fill all varsity lanes and most junior varsity allocations.

This year’s Valley League consists of eight teams. Regular-season standings account for half of the formula which determines the final league positions with the other half based on positions at the league championship meet, so the two league wins may or may not contribute to a Valley League championship for the Warriors.

Individuals or relay quartets rather than teams qualify for the CIF meet and, during the first two Fallbrook meets, the Warriors posted consideration qualifying times in all three relay events while four Fallbrook girls had consideration times in at least one individual event.

Kela Kendall, who is a senior, met consideration standards in the 100-yard backstroke, the 100-yard butterfly, and the 200-yard individual medley. Consideration times in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, and 200-yard freestyle were posted by senior Ava Papoulias.

Ella Jean Martinez, who is a freshman, began her high school career with consideration times in the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, and 500-yard freestyle. Last year current senior Ava Dowden was the individual league champion in the 100-yard breaststroke, and during the season’s first week she posted a consideration time in that event.