Central Coast Section Championship Meet
- May 26 – May 29
- San Benito High School
- Hollister, California
- Psych Sheets
The Central Coast Section Championship Meet is set to take place this week at San Benito High School in Hollister, California. The diving portion of the meet will occur on Wednesday, May 26 while the swimming events are set for Friday and Saturday.
With no California High School State Championship meet scheduled for this year, this will be the season-ending event for participants. The meet is just a week before the start of Wave I of the U.S. Olympic Trials, and about three weeks before the start of Wave II of the U.S. Olympic Trials, so those athletes who are going to the big June meets may not be fully tapered here.
The event will be swum as a prelims-finals meet. Prelims for boys will be swum Friday morning, while the girls will race in the afternoon. Finals will begin at noon on Saturday, with boys and girls racing in a combined session.
Spectators will not be allowed at the meet.
One of the names to watch at the meet will be Quicksilver Swimming Santa Cruz senior Ella Mazurek. Mazurek is set to wrap up her high school career this season and has committed to swim for the California Golden Bears beginning in the Fall of 2021. Having won silver at this meet in the 100 and bronze in 200 freestyle back in 2019, Mazurek will enter as top seed in both of those events this year. Mazurek holds a 51.01 in the 100 and a 1:51.42 in the 200.
Mazurek’s fellow Quicksilver senior Jayden Hernandez is entered in both the 100 fly and 200 IM and first and second seed, respectively. Hernandez enters the 100 fly with a 50.41 but has actually been as fast as a 49.98 back in December 2019. In the 200 IM, he holds the second seed behind Nick Elliott‘s 1:56.71 with a 1:56.92. Just last month, Hernandez committed to swim for Concordia University Irvine for the Fall of 2021.
Along with his top seed in the 200 IM, Nick Elliott is entered as 3rd seed in the 500 freestyle. The top seed in that event is 2019 silver medalist Ryan Kirton, Bellarmine Prep senior who has committed to race for UC San Diego beginning next fall. Kirton holds a 4:42.78 entry time which is a fair bit slower than his silver medal-winning time of 4:26.56 from 2019. Second seed in the 500 freestyle and Indiana Hoosiers commit Mason Carlton will go in with a 4:44.13 but was also quicker back in 2019, having placed 4th in the event with a 4:32.41.
Valley Christian High School senior Skyler Smith will also be racing as top seed in the 100 breaststroke. Smith is also graduating high school this year and will be making the move to North Carolina in the fall to race for UNC. As a sophomore, Smith took bronze in the 100 breaststroke at the 2019 Central Coast Section Championships with a 1:02.31. She will be looking to improve upon her 3rd place finish this year and is heading in with a 1:03.01, ahead of Audrey J-Cheng‘s 1:03.65.
Racing gets underway with prelims on Friday, May 28 at 9 am.
