CIF-SS D4 Final Wrap-Up: Cerritos Boys and Girls Live Up to Expectations

There weren’t a lot of surprises at the CIF Division 4 sectional meet in Southern California on Friday. Cerritos, who fielded by far the largest team in the meet (their coaching staff alone was bigger than many teams), won both the girls’ and boys’ meets by a large margin.

Girls’ Meet

The Cerritos girls only won two individual events, but they claimed all three relays and managed to get two or three swimmers into all but one “A” final. They also populated many of the “B” finals. The consequence of great depth is a huge score, and Cerritos proved it.

They began by running away with the 200 medley relay, clocking in at 1:51.59 (Kiri Harvey, 27.42; Roxanna Yu, 31.38; Maya Valdoria, 27.20; and Alexa Ocampo, 25.59). Three seconds ahead of the next fastest competitors, Cerritos just missed the D4 record of 1:51.18. With three juniors and a freshman on that relay team they’ll have another chance at it next year. Meanwhile, Garden Grove and Orcutt Academy were locked in a battle for second. In the end, Garden Grove edged out Orcutt 1:54.76 to 1:54.96.

Kiri Harvey broke the D4 record in the 200 IM. Photo: Anne Lepesant

La Quinta Westminster freshman Samantha Le (1:54.28) won the 200 free thanks to a strong second half in which she overtook Alverno senior Kali Kearns (1:56.06) who had led at the 100. Freshman Farah Stack of Malibu (1:58.33) took third.

Cerritos junior Harvey broke a meet record when she won the 200 IM in 2:05.13. Seniors Emily Mathis (Orcutt Academy, 2:08.23) and Hannah Caskey (Garden Grove, 2:12.62) took second and third, respectively.

It was a great final high school meet for the three seniors at the top of the podium in the 50 free: Olivia Hynes of Grace Brethren was first in 24.57, then came Jenna Frazer of Woodcrest Christian (25.06) and Delaney Thorne of Temescal Canyon (25.09).

Sophomore Kristine Ordonez of Don Antonio Lugo was the top D4 diver, scoring 323.00 points. She was followed by Mission Prep junior Marina Florez (306.45) and Orcutt senior Kailey Roux (301.75).

Our vote for the Most Fun Event of the day was the girls 100 fly, in which Woodcrest Christian teammates, both seniors, Jenna Frazer and Sarah Mossman actually tied to win the event. Frazer was out first, leading by 0.25 at the 50 and by a similar margin at the 75. Mossman caught even with her inside the flags and the two finished together with 58.63. Junior Natalie Contreras of Garden Grove took third in 1:00.24.

Hynes of Grace Brethren made it two-for-two in the sprint freestyle events when she won the 100 free in 52.87. Freshman Victoria Kirshner of Santa Clarita Christian finished second (53.28); junior Mykaela Delgado from Trinity Classical Academy was third (54.07).

Cerritos junior Harvey picked up her second meet record with a 4:59.12 win in the 500 free. Orcutt’s Emily Ayers placed second in 5:15.66, while 2013 runner-up Kali Kearns, a senior from Alverno, finished third (5:19.07).

Cerritos 200 free relay. Photo: Jenna Haufler/Hugh Berryman

The Cerritos quartet of Arina Yu (25.34), Julia Reyes (25.00), Ocampo (25.55), and Megan Ma (24.81) combined for a 1:40.70 win in the 200 free relay, setting a new D4 record by about 8/10 in the process. Garden Grove (1:43.58) came in second and Woodcrest Christian (1:44.26) got third.

Santa Clarita Christian’s Kirshner won the 100 back in 59.57. Junior Alexandria Kwong from Orcutt Academy (1:00.32) took second; Malibu’s Stack, third (1:00.96).

Mathis of Orcutt Academy led the field from start to finish in the 100 breast, and ended up with a final time of 1:05.51. Sophmore Semaj Walker of Academy for Academic Excellence (1:08.23) got her hands to the wall just ahead of Garden Grove’s Caskey (1:08.38) for second place.

Cerritos won the 400 free relay, once more about a half-second off the D4 record time. A Yu (55.57), Ma (54.91), R Yu (54.20), and Harvey (52.88) came in at 3:37.56. Orcutt went 3:47.74 for second; Temescal Canyon was third with 3:52.05.

Boys’ Meet

Cerritos won the boys 200 medley relay by more than 3.5 seconds thanks to Angel Alcala (23.74), Abraham Son (28.14), Alex Alcala (25.34), and Richard Nguyen (22.80) who combined for a 1:40.02. There was great drama in the race for second, though, as Nordhoff (1:43.64), Woodcrest Christian (1:43.67), and Notre Dame Riverside (1:43.79) finished within 1.5 seconds of each other.

Logan Hotchkiss of Malibu won both the 200 and 500 free. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Malibu junior Logan Hotchkiss earned the first of his two victories with a 1:41.48 in the 200 free. He was .07 off the D4 record, set in 2007. A pair of sophomores fought it out for second, with Evan Munaretto of Fairmont Prep coming out ahead of Roman Sarmiento of Notre Dame Riverside 1:46.88 to 1:47.00.

Chassé Sodemann of Ontario Christian, who will swim for the Coast Guard Academy in the fall, won the 200 IM in 1:57.36. He was 4.6 seconds faster than Justin Quiroga of Citrus Valley and Edgar Chin of Fairmont Prep, who finished nearly together with 2:01.93 and 2:02.04, respectively.

The boys from Malibu won every single freestyle event, individual and relay, except the 50 free: it was Justin Rohn, a junior from San Gorgonio, who got his hand to the wall first in the 50. Rohn touched in 21.78 ahead of Citrus Valley sophomore Harrison Stuckey (21.89) and Woodcrest Christian senior Josh Frazer (22.06).

Adam Berard of San Dimas took top points in the diving with a score of 303.10. Second and third places went to Ocean View’s Garrett Brown (259.75) and Christopher Rodriguez of Don Antonio Lugo (238.35).

Angel Alcala of Cerritos held on to keep Pilgrim senior Victor Dominguez from achieving a come-from-behind victory. Alcala out-touched Dominguez 51.43 to 51.53 despite the latter’s stronger second half. Woodcrest’s Frazer was third.

The Malibu freestyle machine was back in action for the 100, when junior Owen Franz got the win in 47.73. San Gorgonio’s Rohn went 48.25 for second place; St. Bonaventure senior Patrick Wilbur (48.34) was third.

There was more Malibu magic on hand when Hotchkiss added the 500 to his list of CIF titles. The junior was racing against the clock, as no one was anywhere near him, and ended up with a winning time of 4:36.12. Dominguez of Pilgrim added another second to his collection, finishing in 4:49.67. Third place went to sophomore Yiaro Mojica of Notre Dame Riverside (4:50.32).

Malibu (1:29.77) was way out front in the boys 200 free relay thanks to Hotchkiss (22.19), Cooper Bell (22.95), Alec Wilimovsky (22.73), and Franz (21.90). The next four relay teams all hit the wall in a big wave, led by San Dimas (1:31.85) and Nordhoff (1:31.94).

Angel Alcala breaking the CIF D4 record in the 100 fly. Photo: Anne Lepesant

Angel Alcala’s second title of the meet came with a D4 record: the Cerritos junior clocked a 50.79 in the 100 back, beating St. Bonaventure’s Wilbur (51.64) and Arrowhead Christian’s Isaac Yeier (55.52).

The last individual event was exciting, as Fairmont’s Chin caught up to Ontario Christian’s Sodemann and eventually touched first 57.42 to 57.50. Temescal Canyon senior John Trenary (1:00.34) pickup up the third.

Malibu ended the meet with one more freestyle title: the 400 free relay. Hotchkiss (47.50), Bell (50.10), Wilimovsky (49.36), and Franz (47.18) combined for 3:14.14, exactly a second away from the D4 record. Citrus Valley finished second with 3:15.57. Cerritos got third, touching in 3:19.77.