Girls Meet
The 2013 championships left little doubt as to which school fielded the strongest team: Cathedral Catholic won by 70 points over Mt Carmel and Canyon Crest, the latter two separated by just four. But the 2014 version told a different story. This year just about every “A” final had at least one Cathedral Catholic and one Mt Carmel swimmer; some events had two of one, others had two of the other.
In the end Mt Carmel nosed out Cathedral Catholic to win by one point. In the team sport that high school swimming is, that one extra point could have been attributed to any number of performances. Had you scored the prelims meet you might have concluded Cathedral Catholic would repeat as Section Champions. But the unexpected can, and does, happen between prelims and finals. Here are some examples that went in Mt Carmel’s favor:
- 200 medley relay: from third in prelims to first in finals;
- Ivy Provines – 50 free: from fourth in prelims to third in finals; 100 free: from sixth to second;
- Marci Vega – 500 free: eighth to seventh;
- 200 free relay: third to second.
Those moments, in addition to the “expected” results, added up to just enough points to tip the balance in Mt Carmel’s favor. In addition to the narrow margin between first and second there was a tie for third place between Canyon Crest Academy and Coronado High School, making for an exciting meet all around.
In the 200 medley relay Mt. Carmel (Georgia Reilly, 27.05; Micah Toetter, 30.58; Sabrina Hughes, 27.03; and Jordan Gormaly, 25.19) won a tight race over Del Norte, 1:49.85 to 1:50.32. Coronado was third, a half-second in front of Canyon Crest.
West Hills sophomore Sarah Nowaski successfully defended her 200 free title, winning in 1:50.91 ahead of Cathedral Catholic freshman Jessica Pentlarge (1:53.09) and West Hills senior Julia Toronczak (1:53.27).
Georgia Reilly, a junior from Mt Carmel, won her second consecutive 200 IM, finishing in 2:07.75. Christian High sophomore Taylor Lynch was second (2:08.26); Coronado senior Alex Rodman, third (2:08.91).
Cathedral Catholic junior Mary Roberts won the 50 free by over a half-second, touching in 23.94. Mt Carmel’s Hughes and Provines were second and third.
Escondido Charter junior Taylor Pamplin, who set the Section and D2 diving records as a freshman, re-broke them this year with 303.35 points. This was her third consecutive win in the one-meter competition. Alexa Jones of Steele Canyon was second (253.13 points); Leah Buford of Canyon Crest, third (245.00).
Sophomore Cora McClelland of Cathedral Catholic (55.84) avenged last year’s second-place finish with the 2014 title in the 100 fly. Canyon Crest’s Tracy Chen (57.18) and Cathedral Catholic sophomore Madeline Cosgrove (58.57) rounded off the podium.
Roberts got her second win of the meet in the 100 free, where her 52.69 was 7/10 faster than Provines of Mt Carmel (53.39) and Sydney Schuette of Del Norte (53.44).
West Hills’ Nowaski made it a double-double by winning her second event, the 500 free, for the second year in a row. This time she went 4:57.77 for the win, while Cathedral Catholic’s Cosgrove (5:07.75) and junior Haley Chasin of Coronado (5:11.89) got second and third.
Pentlarge (24.33), Cosgrove (25.20), McClelland (24.61), and Roberts (24.06) of Cathedral Catholic combined for a winning 1:38.20 in the 200 free relay. Mt Carmel eked out a second-place finish over Valhalla, 1:41.36 to 1:41.42.
Defending champion, Mt Carmel junior Reilly, won the 100 back in a close contest with Coronado senior Rodman, 57.20 to 57.33. Cathedral Catholic freshman Pentlarge (57.67) was close behind at third.
Christian’s Lynch won the 100 breast in 1:07.22. Second and third went to Del Norte freshman Evelyn Luu (1:08.18) and Our Lady of Peace junior Megan Cali (1:09.74), respectively.
Cathedral Catholic’s Pentlarge (53.11), Cosgrove (53.57), McClelland (52.73), and Roberts (53.95) picked up the last win of the meet with a combined 3:33.36 in the 400 free relay. But it wasn’t enough to claim the team title, as Mt Carmel (3:37.27) got enough points with their second-place finish to come out on top. Canyon Crest took third (3:39.35).
Final Standings
1. Mt. Carmel High School 204
2. Cathedral Catholic High School 203
3. Coronado High School 127
3. Canyon Crest Academy 127
5. Valhalla High School 115
6. La Jolla High School 108
7. Del Norte High School 99
8. West Hills High School 91
9. Steele Canyon High School- 14 79
10. Christian High School 63
Boys Meet
A much stronger Canyon Crest team made the Mt Carmel boys work for their repeat victory this year. Their seventy-six point spread from 2013 was reduced to 38 this time around.
Canyon Crest started things off with a 1:37.62 first-place finish in the 200 medley relay with junior Garrett Schmid (24.55), freshman Anthony Kang (28.42), freshman Brendan Santana (22.87), and sophomore Eric Li (21.78). La Jolla came in .33 later at second, while Mt Carmel finished third in 1:39.01.
Mt Carmel senior and Auburn commit Grant Schenk avenged his 2013 second place with a new CIF-SDS D2 record of 1:38.03 for the 200 free. USC-bound Jason O’Brien of Point Loma was runner-up with 1:39.44; Valhalla junior Michael Salazar got third with 1:40.43.
Senior Garrett Glaudini from Ramona High School won the 200 IM in 1:50.70 ahead of Canyon Crest’s Schmid (1:51.26) and senior Micah Ornelas of West Hills (1:52.90).
The 50 free went to Cathedral Catholic senior Jordan Colina (21.28) who had been runner-up in 2013. Steele Canyon junior Aaron Cardoza finished second (21.91), with Coronado sophomore Riley Ferguson (22.02) rounding out the top three.
Santana junior Chase Webster set the CIF-SDS D2 record for one-meter diving with 334.25 points. Del Norte’s Drew Webb (291.75) and Canyon Crest’s Mason Mercer (220.80) were second and third, respectively.
Valhalla’s Salazar was back in the 100 fly, this time with the win. Salazar lowered his own CIF-SDS D2 record to 49.03, having set it in prelims with 49.56. Seniors Kevin Mendoza of Southwest (50.05) and Shawn Howen of Steele Canyon (50.82) followed.
Ramona’s Glaudini scored a double when he won a tight 100 free final against Colina of Cathedral Catholic. Colina took it out first in 22.41 but Glaudini had a strong back half, finishing in 24.37 and getting the touch, 47.01 to Colina’s 47.12. Coronado senior Israel Dedina also had a great second 50 and wound up third with 47.21.
Mt Carmel senior Schenk won his third 500 in as many years, this time breaking the CIF-SDS D2 record by 1.3 seconds with 4:22.09. Schenk led Point Loma senior O’Brien by .40 at the 200, but O’Brien held 26-mids for the next 200 and had the upper hand by .67 at the 400. A 50 later he had extended his lead to .90. But then Schenk pulled off a 24.9 final 50 and out-touched O’Brien by .61. O’Brien’s 4:22.70 was under the previous D2 record, too. The next three finishers were all bunched up as well: Alexander Santana of Canyon Crest (4:41.85), Paul Hedlin of La Jolla (4:41.97), and Justin Ferrell of Mt Carmel (4:42.09).
Coronado won a very close and exciting 200 free relay. Ferguson (22.10), Erik Armes (22.24), Bill Kusters (21.78), and Dedina (21.29) combined for 1:27.41. The race for second was a nail-biter: La Jolla was leading by a second at the third exchange but Mt Carmel’s Schenk ripped a 20.88 to edge out La Jolla for second, 1:28.51 to 1:28.84.
West Hills’ Ornelas (50.57) held off Canyon Crest’s Schmid (50.75), who very nearly negative-split the 100 back, for the win; Cathedral Catholic junior Brendan Barry (51.99) took third.
Ramona senior Carlo Silva was the 100 breast winner, going 58.56 in finals. Del Norte freshman Austin Nguyen was second with 59.02. The next two finishers were only separated by .03: Ramona junior Cory Davision (1:00.42) and Del Norte sophomore Kyle Mak (1:00.45).
In another exciting relay, Mt Carmel ended the meet with a solid 400 free relay. Chris Evangelista (48.59), Jacob Weber (49.08), Jake Danzer (49.67), and Schenk (45.34) combined for 3:12.68. They were tied with Cathedral Catholic and about a second behind Canyon Crest after the third leg, at which point Schenk used his last high school “at bat” to blow everyone away. Cathedral Catholic finished up second, just coming in ahead of Canyon Crest, 3:14.15 to 3:14.28.
Final Standings
1. Mt. Carmel High School 209
2. Canyon Crest Academy 171
3. La Jolla High School 129
4. Cathedral Catholic High School 111
5. Coronado High School 108
6. Ramona High School 107
7. Del Norte High School 99
8. Valhalla High School 82
9. Southwest 75
10. Steele Canyon High School 58
Awesome article! Sundevil pride never fades! Best coach around, keep on winning Dan Peck!!
Great article. Great swims . Great meet
Anne,
Thank you for taking the time to write this article. While times may not comparatively be as fast as southern section, it was one of the most exciting team meets possible. The kids will appreciate this recognition of their efforts and their day. Thank You!