It’s the beginning of May, and the smell of S.A.M.M.S. swim meet results are in the air. To save you from having to read through these old meet-format results (here’s a link to them in full, if you dare) we’ve parsed through and found the top times and results from this weekend’s Sac-Joaquin Section Championships in California, which serves as the season-ending championship for the Central-East portion of the state (sort of at the corner where the state bends, but not including the Bay Area; Sacramento and Stockton are the major cities.)
Among the stars on the women’s side was Boise State-bound senior Brittany Aoyama from Linden High. She took a pair of individual wins in the meet in back-to-back races (separated, of course, by the diving break.) First she won the 50 yard free in 23.32, and she then followed that up with a 53.69 in the 100 fly. She’s been a few tenths faster in the 50 free, but that 100 yard fly time is a lifetime best for her by seven-tenths of a second.
She, along with junior teammate Tami Moody, led the scoring for Linden, who ended up placing 12th overall.
That was well behind women’s meet champions Davis, who with 260 points topped Granite Bay for their second consecutive team championship and 18th overall.
Davis was let by impressive sprint duo Alex Rieger (a junior) and Marrisa La Freniere (a senior), who went 1-2 in the 100 free in 51.49 and 52.27, respectively. Rieger also placed 2nd in the 50 free behind Aoyama, and Freniere was 4th.
With the two fastest 100 freestylers in the section, it’s no surprise that Davis ran away with the title in the 400 free relay, finishing in 3:26.51, which is a new Section Record. They also broke the Section Record in the 200 medley relay with a 1:44.26.
It was Rio Americano, who got a 22.9 anchor from Taylor Yamahata, that won the 200 free relay in a new section record of their own in 1:35.32. The old record was their’s as well, having been set at last year’s meet.
The Davis championship was won on the back of an impressive senior class. Stanford commit Tara Halsted won the women’s 200 IM in 2:02.07, following up on a 2:01.11 she swam in prelims. She also won the 100 back in 55.46.
The rebuilding process, though, for the team that won 8 of the 12 events at the meet, shouldn’t be too drastic. For example, the runner-up in the 200 IM was sophomore Emma Barksdale in a 2:02.17: less than a tenth behind Halsted’s winning time. They also have the most impressive young distance swimmer in the section in freshman Chenoa Devine. She won the 200 free in 1:49.61, and followed that up with a 4:49.18 in the 500 free later in the meet.
The Blue Devils also picked up wins from junior Kathleen Benjamin in the 100 breaststroke, where a great back-half pulled her away from Vista del Lago’s Brittany Oxley 1:03.31-1:03.61.
And finally, Mikaela Lujan from Nevada Union won a challenging diving final with a score of 463.30 to Amy Crayne’s 461.90. Crayne was one of a pair of silver medals earned by St. Francis, who won the 2010 and 2011 state titles over runners-up Davis. They also got a second-place finish in the 200 free from junior Annclaire Macart in 1:50.21 That was a full two-second drop for Macart off of her best time (to this point in her career, her 100 was by far her best time) showing that she could give the freshman Devine a challenge at next year’s meet in this event.
Girls top 5:
1. Davis – 360
2. Granite Bay – 295
3. Rio Americano – 258
4. St. Francis – 185
5. Vacaville – 126
The boys’ meet title went to Jesuit, who prevented a Davis sweep by a mere four-and-a-half points (with two-time defending champions Granite Bay only another four behind them.) This is Jesuit’s 21st title; they were the dominant team in the section from the late 70’s through the mid-90’s.
That history is important given what happened en route to this title. The Jesuit boys got this one by way of a single relay win in the 200 free relay, which was immediately preceded by their only individual victory in the 500 (in fact, they only had three individual medals for the whole meet, which highlights how deep the program is.)
In the 500 free, Chris Wieser awoke the crowd with a 4:23.01 for the win and a new Sac Joaquin Section Record. That was a record that had stood at 4:23.77 since 1993. There are a lot of fairly old records on the men’s side of this section, which hasn’t seen the same top-flight names come through in the past decade as the women’s side has (including Olympians Haley and Alyssa Anderson, and Texas All-American Karlee Bispo.)
Wieser was also the runner-up in the 200 free in 1:39.99. That’s more than three seconds better than his previous lifetime best, and puts him just under the 1:40 barrier for the first time in his life. The high school junior gets even better as the races get longer; at Winter Juniors, he was 15:27 in his 1,650, so keep an eye on his long course 1500 this summer.
Despite the fireworks and the eventual team title from Jesuit, the majority of the individual winning went to Davis. They bookended the meet with victories in the 200 medley (1:34.22) and 400 free (3:06.23) relays; in between that, they added another four individual victories.
That began with Riley Hickman in the 200 free. The sophomore launched his recruiting value off with this meet as he heads into the pivotal junior season beginning with a win in the boys’ 200 free in 1:38.27 – a full two second drop from his previous lifetime best. The young swimmer seems to be still feeling his way through the timing of this race – in finals, he put up an incredible third 50 yards of 25.2 to really put Wieser away.
Pushing the excitement even further is that Hickman tends to go down from that 200 toward the sprints (though he’s got a decent enough 500 as well). He added a second individual victory in the 100 free with another lifetime best of 45.28, holding off Graine Bay’s Kevin Wylder (46.04). That 100 free final should be a wild one enext year – all five swimmers who were faster than 47 seconds in the final are underclassmen, come from five different schools, and include two sophomores.
Hickman was one of two double-winners for Davis at this meet. They also picked up a pair of victories from junior Matt Whittle. First he won the 200 IM in 1:48.69, and he followed that with a 48.26 to run away with the 100 fly title.
This Davis team returns a whole lot of points next season. They have some young talent (like freshman sprinter Sean Li) who should give them better depth next season to go with it, and make the Davis boys the early favorites for the 2014 title.
Other winners from the meet include Golden Valley’s Connor Hoppe in the 100 breaststroke. He’s one of two 100 yard breaststokes of 54 seconds or better that we saw from juniors out west this weekend (Curtis Ogren was a 53.90 on the Central Coast.) That swim was a new Section Record, breaking a tie between two Davis swimmers, Keenan Newman and the aforementioned Whittle (the defending champion), who were both 55.74’s.
Also winning were Vista del Lago’s Adam Banks in the 100 backstroke with a 50.74, followed by Dylan Kubick from Oak Ridge in 51.01; and Granite Bay’s Kevin Wylder in the 50 free in 20.96. Hoppe, the breaststroke champion, was second in that 50 free in 21.21.
Boys’ top 5
1. Jesuit – 239.5
2. Davis – 235
3. Granite Bay – 231
4. Oakridge – 205
5. Bear River – 155
All the more impressive considering the state of these teams leagues and the quality of the pool. This is the only meet in most of the participating teams leagues that actually brings out officials. The host pool/team, Tokay, refuses to bring them out even for their own league Championships.
The pool is starting to show it’s 40 years of age too. When I raced there a decade ago the walls were a bit slick and slightly slimy. This year the host didn’t even buy new backstroke flags, leaving up loose tattered flags from a party supply store.
Although not a centrally located in the Sac-Juaquin Section as is Tokay, a pool that is not only a bit faster but it is logistically a FAR superior pool and that is the Roseville Summer Sanders Aquatic Center at Woodcreek High. The seating for fans is FAR superior, parking is better and the space for the athletes is so dramatically superior it is a joke. However, consider that it would shift money in the section and that stops the “powers” in the section from moving the meet.