There’s No Mistaking Conejo Simi’s Force at Mission Viejo Meet

It all started when many suspected that UN California was swimming’s version of a corporate merger. After all, it had one of those universal names and plenty of assets and was running over everyone around.

After two days of competition last March at the Junior National short-course championships at Milwaukee, UN California was leading the women’s team point standings. And that caused some real worry.

Were this an established team, hardly an eyebrow would have been raised. But this was a some new gang traveling under a new name. Something was definitely out of stroke with the rest of the swimming world.

When it was discovered that UN stood for “unattached,” short-course meet officials ripped down the team’s point totals, not allowing its scores to be recognized as those of a legitimate team.

The team was passing itself off as unattached because, Coach Mike Blouin says, a U.S. Swimming rule says a team must be together 120 days before it can compete as a team in an event.

Now, Conejo Simi, formerly UN California, is officially recognized as legitimate and is dominating at the Junior Olympic Long Course Championships at the Mission Viejo International Sports Complex.

Shauna MacEwen and Stacie Duncan swam senior nationals qualifying times Tuesday as they finished first and second, respectively, in the 800-meter freestyle, the meet’s first event.

After competition Wednesday, Conejo Simi led the women’s team standings with 105 points. They had accumulated enough points to lead the combined standings, but they couldn’t figure in that category because their lone male swimmer hadn’t placed in an event.

Thursday, Christian Troeger finished fifth in the men’s 200-meter freestyle. MacEwen won the women’s 200-meter freestyle in 2:06.70 and was on the winning 800-meter freestyle relay in 8:38.35, surpassing the senior nationals qualifying mark by almost nine seconds.

So Conejo Simi found itself leading the combined team standings, not just the women’s. Conejo Simi now has a combined 208 points. Irvine’s Novaquatics, the second-place team, has 165 combined points.

The coach and his swimmers attribute the merger of the Conejo and Simi teams, located in the Simi Valley, as the source of their success.

“It made everything better in every way,” explained first-year coach Blouin, who said his Conejo team’s morale was miserable before the merger. “It combined our strengths, our money and our facilities. Now, there is no weakness.”

Besides having double resources, the swimmers say they have something that was lacking in the past.

“We’re better as a group,” said MacEwen. “Having 10 people together at an event instead of two is just incredible. We can help each other stay up if someone doesn’t do well, that’s the difference.

“I think we all know what it’s like to have nobody backing you but a coach.”

They plan on supporting each other more when the meet continues today with competition in the 400-meter freestyle, 200-meter individual medley, 50-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle relay. Preliminary heats begin at 10 a.m. with finals following at 6 p.m. MacEwen believes those events will force others to take notice of her team.

“This is the first time anybody is saying Conejo Simi,” she says, possibly thinking back to last March. “Now they’ve discovered us.”