Buenaventura Boys Finish 2nd in Junior Nationals

Bolstered by a third-place finish in the final event, the 400-meter medley relay, the Buenaventura swim team earned its second-best finish ever Tuesday in the United States Swimming Junior Nationals West at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Buenaventura earned runner-up honors in the boys’ standings with 177 points. Woodlands, a team from Houston, won with 203 points.

In the combined standings, Buenaventura finished seventh, best among Southern California teams and third in the state.

The medley relay team of Wes Shipley (backstroke), Joel Gustafson (breaststroke), Ben Pecht (butterfly) and Chris Pelant (freestyle) sped to a personal-best time of 3 minutes 58.32 seconds, edging Concord-Pleasant Hill-LAMO by .05.

The time difference made all the difference in the boys’ team race. The Concord team wound up third with 175 points.

It was the best Buenaventura performance since 1987 when the team won the boys’ title and the combined championship.

“This is really exciting for us,” Coach Steve Baxter said. “Second place at juniors is hard to do because you’ve got all those kids here, up to 18, who didn’t qualify for senior nationals.”

Along with the boost from the relay, Ryan Duncan placed fifth in the 200 individual medley in a lifetime best, 2:10.89.

“I’m really pleased with that swim,” Duncan said. “It is beyond what I expected. I expected to make the consolation finals and I made the championship finals so I’m real happy.”

The key for Duncan, 18, of Simi Valley, was an improved backstroke and freestyle and a rapid breaststroke segment that moved him from seventh to fifth place.

Harvey Wilford of Agoura Hills and CLASS Aquatics placed fourth in the 200 individual medley in a personal best of 2:10.55. “It was the back half of the race,” Wilford said. “My breaststroke was a second faster and my freestyle was a few tenths faster.”