Rowland High Sweeps Division 4 Team Titles

2018 CIF – Southern Section Division 4 Championships

• May 8th-11th, 2018
• Riverside Aquatic Complex, Riverside, California
• 2018 State Championship Qualifying Criteria
• Meet results
• Team scores

Rowland High School swept the titles as the 2018 CIF – Southern Section Division 4 championship meet on Friday in Riverside. For the boys, this marked a 2nd-straight title (after finishing just 19th the year before), while for the girls this was the a step up the ladder after finishing 2nd in each of the last two seasons.

Girls’ Top 5 & Recap

1. Rowland – 316
2. Downey – 267
3. San Dimas – 161
4. La Salle – 150
5. Bishop Amat – 122

In its early stages, this meet was a highly-competitive team battle. Rowland won the opening 200 medley relay in 1:53.72, placing just .13 seconds ahead of Downey, who were runners-up both in that relay and the meet. Rowland is set up to dominate this relay for a long time, with a squad that included 3 freshmen, a sophomore, and a butterflier Azurine Chang who split 27.05: faster than her team’s freestyle anchor.

Downey clawed back into the lead, however, thanks to a 1-3 finish from Nektaria Anagnostou (1:58.61) and Maritza Ochoa (1:59.66) in the 200 free: an event where Downey scored 40 points and Rowland just 6.

But back-to-back wins in the next two events, including Chang in the 200 IM (2:12.59) and Katelyn Nguyen in the 50 free (23.72) broke the meet open heading into the dive break.

Nguyen was one of only two female swimmers in the meet to post automatic state championship qualifying times. She did so in both that 50 free and in her later win in the 100 free, where she finished in 51.57. Grand Terrace freshman sprinter Destany Lewis will join her at the state meet after a 23.81 in the 50 that also automatically qualifies for state. She finished as the runner-up in the 100 free as well (53.65), but the latter was short of the state championship consideration time.

4 individual wins and a sweep of the relays for Rowland, who saved their sprint star Nguyen for the free relays, was enough to help Rowland cruise to the Division 4 title.

Other Event Winners:

• Vistamar senior Keiko Derikoletis won the girls’ 100 fly in 56.39 – a state consideration time. The SMU-bound swimmer won this event last year as well in a Division 4 record of 55.97. 2018 marks her 3rd-straight 100 fly title.
• Derikoletis also won the 500 free in 5:02.33, another state qualifying time. That’s a new lifetime best for her, and beats her time from this meet last year by 7 seconds. She was a perfect 4-for-4 in her high school career in the 500 free, making the only D4 Championship blemish individually a 4th-place finish in the 100 fly as a freshman.
• Rowland’s relay of Chang, Erika Lim, Rachel Song, and Nguyen, who anchored in 23.80, won th e200 free relay by almost 3 seconds over San Dimas. Downey finished 6th in that relay, which about sealed the team title for Rowland.
• Fillmore junior Katrionna Furness won the girls’ 100 back in 59.68: the only swimer better than 1 minute in the race. She’s a newcomer to the area, having previously lived in the central part of the state and raced for the Mammoth Lake Swim team.
• Rowland freshman Kelly Prawira won the girls’ 100 breaststroke in 1:06.53. Her teammate Nguyen won this race last year, but shifted to a freestyle focus for this year’s meet.
• Worland finished the meet with another relay win, with Song, Megan Geer, Prawira, and Nguyen, another young relay with a freshman, two sophomores, and a junior, finishing in 3:43.59. Nguyen split 52.80 on the anchor. Downey took 2nd in 3:44.98.

Rowland Raiders win both boys and girls CIF titles. Proud day to be a raider! #cifss @RowlandSchools @Mitch_Brunyer @rowlandhs @SGVNSCORES pic.twitter.com/h0yIhpvpRc

— Rowland High School Swim (@rowlandhsswim) May 12, 2018

Boys’ Top 5 and Recap

1. Rowland – 261
2. Downey – 229
3. San Dimas – 225
4. Warren – 212
5. Ocean View – 163

While the boys from La Salle High School in Pasadena were just 7th in the team battle, 2 spots lower than last year, Friday marked the end of the sectionals career of one of the best swimmers in school history: James Torrez. The George Washington-bound swimmer won both the 100 fly (50.70) and 100 back (51.10) for the 3rd-consecutive year to qualify for the state meet.

Torrez also split 24.24 on the backstroke leg as he led off La Salle’s championship-winning 200 medley relay to a 1:40.27 win. He was joined by Andrew Lee, Derek Chen, and James Desjarlals to give La Salle a 3rd event victory of the day.

Torrez was one of two boys at the meet to automatically qualify through to the CIF state championship meet. The other was Ocean View junior Dominic Falcon, who won the 500 free in 4:32.83 to win the 500 free – about a second short of his best time from Sectionals in March. Falcon’s swim is also an All-American consideration time: the only swim to meet that standard in the meet.

Falcon also won the 200 free in 1:41.21, which is a state consideration time and exactly 3 seconds faster than runner-up Ethan Smith of Vistamar.

The meet’s other double winner was Maranatha senior Tanner Gish, who won both the 50 free (21.82) and 100 free (47.70), the latter of which missed a state consideration time by .01 seconds. Those mark the first two wins of his high school career.

Astonishingly, Rowland took the overall team title without winning a single event. Their best finishes came in the 200 medley and 400 free relays, where they were 2nd.

Other Event Winners:

• Riverside – Notre Dame senior Aidan Mojica won the boys’ 200 IM in 2:00.19, running-down breaststroke specialist Jacob Rudner (2:00.46) on the freestyle leg. Rudner had the fastest breaststroke split of the championship final, including two-and-a-half seconds better than Mojica, and later dominated the 100 breaststroke in 59.38. The runner-up in the 100 breaststroke was Downey’s Nathan Lopez in 1:02.94.
• Maranatha won the boys’ 200 free relay in 1:30.23, with a relay of Nicolas Kohl, William Hastings, Nils Heinstedt, and Gish. Gish dove in 3-tenths ahead of La Salle’s anchor Torrez, and was able to pull away ever-so-slightly for a half-second win.
• San Dimas’ veteran team won the boys’ 400 free relay in 3:16.10, almost 4 seconds better than runners-up Rowland. The winning relay included Tyler Sorenson, Brady Boyde, Parker Egan, and Cade Dady, with Dady anchoring in 47.43. Other splits of note include Falcon’s 45.64 on Ocean View’s 3rd-place relay.

Rowland swimmers and coach Mike Cody celebrate sweeping @CIFSS D4 titles pic.twitter.com/7d9vkmDc4H

— Steve Ramirez (@SteveRRamirez) May 12, 2018