Fountain Valley girls’ swim team is fifth at CIF Division 1 finals
Fountain Valley High freshman Alyssa Ton attacked the water with confidence Saturday afternoon at the CIF Southern Section Division 1 swimming finals.
The first individual event of the meet went to the Barons freshman. She touched first in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle, in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 45.96 seconds.
“It felt really great,” Ton said. “I wanted to go my best time, which I did, and I wanted to keep my top spot [from the preliminaries]. But I think just the experience is really great.”
The Barons girls as a whole impressed during the meet at Mt. San Antonio College, finishing fifth as a team.
Corona del Mar’s girls also earned a top 10 finish, placing ninth.
Fountain Valley also got a second-place finish in both the girls’ and boys’ 100 breaststroke, by junior Kaitlyn Nguyen and sophomore Peter Vu, respectively. The Barons girls’ 200 medley team of Ton, Nguyen, senior Jiana Balta and junior Leyna Nguyen touched fourth, while the 400 free relay team (Ton, Kaitlyn and Leyna Nguyen and senior Reese Meister) placed fifth.
Ton finished seventh in the butterfly.
“It’s a special group of kids, and I think it’s only just going to get better,” first-year Fountain Valley coach Nathan Wilcox said. “We’re really focusing on getting the water polo team and the swim team, converging them together and building the aquatics program. We’re hoping to really build on what we have now and just keep the momentum going.”
Kaitlyn Nguyen couldn’t quite win the Division 1 breaststroke title for the third straight year, as her friend Bella Brito of Mira Costa went out fast and touched first in 1:00.36. Nguyen was second in 1:01.40, followed by CdM freshman Sofia Symanowski in a school-record time of 1:01.60.
Both Nguyen and Brito are juniors committed to USC.
“I race her all the time and it’s so fun racing her,” said Nguyen, who was also third in the 200 individual medley. “She definitely pushes me to go faster … I just think my back half was not great. There’s definitely a lot of things I can improve on. I’m just glad I went out fast, but I should have came back a little faster.”
Vu also placed sixth in the 200 free for the Barons boys.
A highlight for CdM’s girls came in the 200 free relay, where Symanowski, senior Taylor Park, junior Alex Milisavljevic and junior Nikki Lahey touched third in 1:36.60.
Park, competing in her last high school meet, was emotional after the race.
“I kind of just wanted to enjoy the [last] high school meet of my career, so it was really fun to also finish off with that relay,” she said.
Contrast that with Symanowski, who is just beginning her high school career and ended Saturday with a school record on the books.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” she said. “Compared to last year, this is unbelievable.”
The same four CdM girls placed sixth in the 200 medley relay for CdM. Milisavljevic won the consolation final in the 500 free.
Newport Harbor sophomore Connor Ohl placed third in the boys’ 50 free, lowering his own school record to touch in 20.48. He was also eighth in the 100 free.
Sailors junior Aidan Arie finished sixth in the 500 free, and he was the consolation champion in the 200 free.
Laguna Beach senior Ava Knepper placed eighth in the girls’ 50 free. Newport Harbor junior Ariana Amoroso and Edison senior Holden Lee both touched ninth in the girls’ and boys’ 100 backstroke, respectively.
Santa Margarita swept the boys’ and girls’ team titles. It’s the 10th team title in a row for the Eagles girls.
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