Dual meet win over Bulldogs positions Warrior mermen for league championship

Regular-season standings account for half of the formula which determines the final league positions for the Valley League swim championship with the other half based on positions at the league championship meet.

In an April 19 dual meet between the two Valley League boys teams which entered the competition in Ramona with undefeated records, Fallbrook defeated Ramona to take that advantage into the April 25‑27 league meet in Fallbrook.

"It's great going undefeated. It was very unexpected this year," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

Ramona's 2022 boys were undefeated in Valley League dual meets, including a home victory against Fallbrook, but Fallbrook outscored the Bulldogs by 14 points at the league meet so the Bulldogs and Warriors shared first place in the final standings. Ramona's boys won the 2023 league championship outright, following an undefeated dual meet season with a 48-point advantage over the Warriors at the league meet.

"We lost to them last year," Richardson said. "It's good to get back to winning."

If only one school in a dual meet has a diver the diving is not included in the team score although individual divers are scored for CIF qualifying purposes. The 2022 dual meet in Ramona had a 108-78 score in the Bulldogs' favor. Fallbrook's return to Ramona this year was a 90-80 Warriors' victory.

"I truly expected that this would be a competitive meet," Richardson said. "They still had a chance to beat us."

Fallbrook and Ramona were both undefeated in all previous 2024 dual meets. Both teams entered the April 19 competition with 6-0 league records.

"I think the talent is part of it," Richardson said. "We had some strong relays and we had a lot of kids who have really been improving this season."

In a league dual meet, each school is allowed three swimmers or divers in each individual event and position points are given for the top five finishes. A school can enter up to two quartets in each relay race with points given for the three fastest times.

Richardson noted that the improvement of the swimmers who provided depth allowed for more position points. "Those third, fourth, and fifth-place points really helped," he said.

The scores of the three judges for a dive are added and then multiplied by the dive's degree of difficulty to obtain the total score for each dive. Fallbrook senior Jamison Ewig was the only boy diver April 19, and since his score was irrelevant for team purposes he had the luxury of practicing more difficult dives for the league and CIF meets. His six dives totaled 134.35 points.

A diver may also swim if he does not exceed the limit of two individual events and four total events for the meet, so Fallbrook junior Felix Alcorn did not dive April 19. Alcorn was preceded by senior Carson Vance and junior Alex Reichart and followed by senior Sam Goode in the 200-yard medley relay which began the swim portion of the meet.

Fallbrook's winning time was 1:48.99 while the second-place Ramona quartet took 1:55.02. Vance won the first individual event, the 200-yard freestyle, in 1:52.85 with Ramona senior Justin Setterberg finishing second at 1:54.29.

Ramona had the first two 200-yard individual medley finishes with Fallbrook collecting position points for third through fifth. Ramona senior Jayden Mitchell beat out Goode for the 50-yard freestyle win by 1/100 of a second, but Fallbrook also took third and fourth in that race. The Bulldogs finished first and second in the 100-yard butterfly with Fallbrook obtaining the remaining position points.

Reichart won the 100-yard freestyle in 50.78 seconds with Mitchell finishing in 51.63 seconds and Goode earning third. Vance had the winning 500-yard freestyle time of 5:12.38 with Setterberg completing his laps in 5:25.61 for second.

Reichart, Goode, junior Milo Pollard, and Vance had a time of 1:33.35 to win the 200-yard freestyle relay. Ramona's faster team took 1:35.85 and the Bulldogs also obtained third-place points.

Ramona senior Logan Werner won the 100-yard backstroke with the Fallbrook swimmers finishing second, third, and fifth. Reichart had a winning time of 1:07.34 in the 100-yard breaststroke and Fallbrook also took fourth-place and fifth-place points.

The meet concluded with the 400-yard freestyle relay. "My top three swimmers were already used up," Richardson said. "I was expecting that we would get second in that relay."

Fallbrook finished second and third.