2023 Sea View League Championships
- April 25-28, 2023
- El Toro High School
- Lake Forest, Calif.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results on SwimPhone
The El Toro High School (Lake Forest, Calif.) girls’ swimming team was apparently robbed of a league title on Friday after a clerical error kept the host Chargers from competing in any relays at the Sea View League Championships.
El Toro totaled 435 points in individual events — 144 more than any other Sea View League squad — but once relays were factored in, the Chargers ended up losing by 40 points to Dana Hills, which won league title for the first time in its 50-year school history thanks to the administrative mistake. Dana Hills tallied 184 of its 475 total points from the three relays (200-yard medley relay, 200 freestyle relay, and 400 free relay).
Congrats to Coach Carrie Pierce Ross (alumni class of 2012) & our Dana Hills Girls Swim Team for winning the 1st League title in Girls Swimming in Dana Hills school history (50 years)!! Beyond proud of this group of girls! 🐬🥇🏊🏼♀️ pic.twitter.com/fmr8AdWvj4
— Dana Hills Athletics (@dhhs_athletics) April 29, 2023
Mission Viejo (396 points) and Trabuco Hills (333 points) placed third and fourth, respectively. El Toro had already handily defeated Dana Hills, Mission Viejo, and Trabuco Hills and posted CIF consideration times in all three relays during dual meets this season. The CIF Division II prelims kick off on Wednesday morning at Riverside City College.
El Toro was led by a pair of seniors who are both committed to continue their swimming careers in college next fall. Nevada commit Henley Kerr captured both the 200 free (1:58.48) and 100 breast (1:03.82) crowns, finishing less than a second off her lifetime best in each event. Angelina Kashani, a D-II Biola University commit, also brought home multiple league titles with victories in the 100 butterfly (58.95) and 100 breast (1:00.34). Kashani was just .13 seconds off her personal-best time in the 100 fly.
Dana Hills senior Sadie Riester and junior Julia Gordon topped the podium for the Dolphins. Riester, an All-CIF water polo player, triumphed in the 100 free with a personal-best 55.57, shaving almost a second off her previous best from April. Gordon also achieved a new best time with her victory in the 200 IM in 2:09.88, sneaking under her previous best (2:09.95) from last November. With only three schools racing in relays, Dana Hills racked up 64 points in the 200 medley relay (1st and 5th place), 60 points in the 200 free relay (2nd and 4th place), and 60 points in the 400 free relay (2nd and 4th place).
SwimSwam reached out to El Toro athletic director Armando Rivas for more information on the nature of the clerical error, but has not received a response as of publication. One source told SwimSwam that the El Toro girls coach forgot to enter relays, and Sea View League athletic directors voted to enforce the rule despite granting Tribuca Hills an exception last year when they also left out their relay entries.
On the boys’ side, Ben Gallegos and Joey Chang each collected two individual titles to carry Mission Viejo to a team victory on Friday. Gallegos showed off his versatility by earning wins in both the 50 free (21.61) and 500 free (4:40.27) while Chang made it a Mission Viejo sweep of the freestyle events with first-place finishes in the 100 free (45.16) and 200 free (1:38.72). Gallegos lowered his lifetime best in the 50 free by .04 seconds before missing his personal-best 500 free time by a couple seconds. Chang, an Army commit, shaved about a tenth of a second off his lifetime best in the 200 free before just barely missing his best 100 free time by .04 seconds.
Trabuco Hills placed second with 485 points, just 14 behind Mission Viejo. Zack Vivona and Alejandro Aceves led the way for Trabuco Hills with wins in the 100 breast (1:03.60) and 100 back (56.08), respectively. Both dropped nearly two seconds en route to their victories.
Final Scores
Girls
- Dana Hills – 475
- El Toro – 435
- Mission Viejo – 396
- Trabuco Hills – 333
Boys
- Mission Viejo – 499
- Trabuco Hills – 485
- Dana Hills – 483
- El Toro – 417
Combined
- Dana Hills – 958
- Mission Viejo – 895
- El Toro – 852
- Trabuco Hills – 818
Why was the coach’s name withheld in the article?
The same coach made a “clerical error”
last year and one swimmer could not compete in CIF due to his lack of knowledge or lack of caring. This is unacceptable. I feel for the athletics that have their futures and confidence mishandled.
The same thing happened last year with a swimmer missing CIF due to the coaches not entering her timing in. So sad
When are the ADs going to hold swim coaches accountable the way they do with other sports? So sick of ADs kicking back and doing nothing.
You’re not being “robbed” if the coach neglected to put in the entires. CIF shows absolutely no mercy if you “forget” to enter swims or input them incorrectly. Why should the league show mercy? Pretty sure the ADs of that conference still gave the option for El Toro to at least swim the relays in prelims to get CIF times. Unavoidable emergencies are one thing, which is why Trabuco was allowed to enter past the deadline last year, however, “forgetting” because you’re on vacation is neglecting your responsibilities.
The swimmers* of El Toro were robbed of the opportunity to win due to coach*** clerical error.
Punishing the athletes for a coach’s error is unjust and unforgivable. The school could have been penalized another way without punishing the innocent athletes involved. This should be about the students and fair competition, not 9 out of 10 athletic directors voting to not let them swim. Embarrassing for those AD’S and their programs. Win at all costs I guess…hollow victory is better than no victory for some. And yes, these students were robbed.
Not sure they were “robbed” as much as “coach made mistake” not getting entries in on time. Painful lesson.
I’m torn on this one. The coach clearly dropped the ball, but I’m also curious as to why no one pointed out, “Hey, Coach, it looks like you forgot to enter relays.”.
Is it the coach’s responsibility to make sure their lineup is in order? Of course. But I’ve been coaching for a long time and I view pointing out an omission like that as a common courtesy.
I know I wouldn’t want to win a meet because the opposing coach forgot to enter relays.
Exactly correct. The other 9 AD’S in the conference had a chance to make this right, but chose to punish the kids instead.
I always love when we punish kids for simple errors by the adults. Gets right to the culprits
Yikes, horrible for those kids
‘Clerical error’ by Coach or hs officials? My experience has been hs officials WAY too full of themselves!
No system or feedback to prevent this from happening? Nobody noticed until it was too late? Call me skeptical.