CIF Southern Section Division 2 Championships
- Prelims- Friday, May 12th
- Finals- Saturday, May 13th
- Riverside Aquatic Complex (Riverside, California)
- Meet Info
- Results
The 2017 CIF Southern Section Division 2 Championships are underway, as Friday’s preliminary session is now in the books. Swimmers will return for finals on Saturday, May 13th at the Riverside Aquatic Complex. Read on for highlights from the prelims session.
The Crean Lutheran girls were on fire during prelims, taking down 4 of the Division 2 Records. They got the ball rolling in the 200 medley relay, as the team of Eva Merrell (back- 25.13), Jimena Martinez (breast- 29.67), Mandy Brenner (fly- 24.92), and Elise Garcia (free- 22.50) turned in a record time of 1:42.22. Crean Lutheran then took down the Division 2 Record in the 200 free relay. The quartet of Garcia (22.99 leadoff), Brenner (23.75), Journey Werner (25.35), and Merrell (22.80) combined for a 1:34.89.
In addition to her relay successes, Elise Garcia went on to break the Division 2 Record in the 50 free. She surged to a quick 22.71 to erase the former mark of 22.80 set by Gretchen Jacques in 2009. Relay teammate Eva Merrell, a member of the USA National Team, charged to a new Division 2 Record in the 100 fly, turning in a 52.57 to clip the former mark of 52.59 set by Alexis Margett last season.
Another pair of records went down in the 100 free and 100 back at the hands of Mira Costa sophomore Alexandra Crisera. In the 100 free, she popped a 49.02 to take down Kenisha Liu’s former record of 49.26, while Garcia came up with a 49.70 for 2nd seed. Crisera returned for the 100 back, taking down Sonia Wang’s (53.77) former record with a 53.65.
On the men’s side, Arcadia’s Tenny Chong came within a few tenths of Anthony Ervin’s Division 2 Record in the 100 free. Chong put up a 44.59 to close in on Ervin’s 44.11 from 1999. He also missed the 50 free record by just a tenth, putting up a 20.28 to take lane 4 for finals. Tomorrow night, he’ll get another shot at Kyle Coan’s record of 20.17 from 2014.
What year is Merrell?
junior
She’s a junior this year.
It looks like Eva Merrell has changed schools from Corona Del Mar HS to Crean. CDM has a great 50 meter pool and I don’t think that Crean even has a pool…..
Most swimmers in Orange County practice with their clubs year round. So her transfer is not based on the length of the pool.
Good point. CDM uses the big pool for water polo not swimming. Its into water polo. Crean had a swim team about 3 times better than Corona Del Mar since about 2 years ago it had Ella Eastin.
Also, Eva picked Crean since it allows her more flex time for being an elite swimmer to do online classes. Lots of kids are semi-home schooled these days.