SUMMER SECTIONALS CONTINUE
Swim: Santa Clarita swimmers advance to finals at SPEEDO Summer Sectionals
Day 2 of the 2019 CA SPEEDO Summer Sectionals continued with six individual swimmers and six relay teams from Canyons Aquatics and Paseo Aquatics advancing to the finals at the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center on Friday.
Viviana Raker and Ellie Horst of Canyons Aquatics both advanced to one of the final three heats in the Women’s 200-meter freestyle. Horst paced herself to begin the race through the first 100 meters slowly gaining ground on the rest of the field.
In fourth place, heading into the final 50 meters, Horst made her move by kicking things up a notch and out-touched Crow Canyon’s swimmer Amber Gardner for second place in two minutes, 7.41 seconds in the Consolation Final.
“I felt good,” Horst said. “It’s been a good meet so far with some very good racing and I’m glad we got to host it. I try to build up my races towards the end. I try to build up my kick and stuff, so yeah.”
Raker finished in eighth place in the C-Final in 2:12.43.
Canyons men’s swimmer Konrad Antoniuk also finished eighth in the Men’s 200-meter freestyle C-Final with a time of 1:58.46.
Cade Brower showed his versatility in the Men’s 400-meter individual medley Consolation Final, pulling out a third-place finish.
Dropping time from the morning’s prelims, Brower blazed through the first 50 meters in first place but was overcome and dropped to fourth place through 300 meters. In the final 50 meters, he used his legs and powered his way to a top-three finish in 4:41.35, beating out Justin Schneider of Temecula Swim Club in lane No. 4 by .13 seconds.
“Prelims it’s just about getting that second swim, so I knew that I still had some in the tank from this morning, that’s why I had a four-second drop from this morning,” Brower said. “I saw someone in lane four and said to myself, ‘I don’t want to lose.’ And right about at half pool, on the last 50, I went straight to beyond a six-feet kick and I think those legs is what got me to the wall fast.”
Kyle Brill advanced to the second day of final heats in back-to-back days, placing fourth in the Men’s 400-meter individual medley C-Final in 4:44.54.
Izabella Adame recorded a time of 1:07.09 for eighth place in the Women’s 100-meter backstroke.
Two Canyons Aquatic Club
relay teams finished in the top 10 as the Women’s 400-meter and Men’s 400-meter relay teams came in second and third place in their respective heats.
The women’s “A” team comprised of Regan Nibarger, Riley Botton, Julia Unas and Horst finished with the sixth fastest time overall in 3:58.07.
“This is one of the most fun relays so I like it a lot,” Nibarger said. “I was happy to lead off because I’m not swimming it individually this weekend, so I was happy with my race.”
The women’s “B” team (Allison Cho, Hope Hill, Jin-Young Yi, Raker) came in 17th with a time of 4:06.60.
Dylan Parente, Jacob Gragas, Ronit Shrestha and Justin Morsch made up the men’s “A” team that finished with the seventh-fastest time in the Men’s 400-meter freestyle relay in 3:34.86.
Parente led off the race, finishing his portion of the race in fourth place while Gragas and Shrestha did their parts and stayed in the middle of the pack.
Morsch, however, finished it off, almost catching Crow Canyon’s relay team by .01 seconds for a third-place finish.
“I just wanted to bring it home strong,” Morsch said. “The rest of the guys did a great job and I wanted to cap it off well. I almost caught the guy in second, but I wasn’t quite there. Overall, I think we did a great job.”
The men’s “B” team (Woo-Young Yi, Jonathan Quick, Ted Hwang, Brower) recorded the sixteenthfastest time in 3:40.81.
Sectionals continue tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. beginning with the Women’s 200-meter individual medley. Finals get underway at 5 p.m. with the Women’s 200-meter backstroke.