West Ranch boys swim knocks off Valencia in split day
Valencia Vikings boys swim took its first loss of the season on Wednesday after dropping its dual league meet with the West Ranch Wildcats.
The Viking girls remain perfect after winning the meet, 101-82, while the West Ranch boys, who are also undefeated in league, won 113-67, at the Santa Clarita Aquatics Center.
One of the best times of the day was a blazing 2:02.98 mark by Valencia sophomore Tori Yamamura in the girls 200-yard individual medley race.
Valencia coach Jayme Wheeler saw her young sophomore crush the CIF State automatic time by nearly two seconds in what was just another day at the office for Yamamura.
“Honestly, I think it was just another day for her,” Wheeler told The Signal in a phone interview. “She has more potential and I think she was close to her PR (personal record).”
The Viking girls also received big points from Samantha Cazares, Aubrey Martin and Joy Lee.
The former two topped the podium along with Yamamura and Chelsea Dela Calzada in the girls 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 48.3 seconds.
Martin, a sophomore, also added wins in the 200yard freestyle (1:53.79) and in the 100-yard butterfly, after finishing in 56.79 seconds. Cazares made her biggest splash in the 100yard breaststroke, winning the event with a time of 1 minute, 6.95 seconds.
“(Martin and Yamamura) both make a huge impact for the girls team and they have since last year starting as freshmen,” Wheeler said. “They are both club swimmers so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like but they make big impacts for the Valencia High swim team.”
Wildcats freshman Emma Piltzer helped her team gain a ton of points with three silver-medal finishes but topped the podium in the 100-yard freestyle race after finishing in 52.61 seconds.
“Emma is a rockstar and has a very bright future ahead,” West Ranch coach Kearsten Livingstone wrote in an email. “We are thrilled to have her on the team this year. She is a very sweet girl who is always looking for ways to improve. She’s got big goals and I believe she can accomplish every last one of them.”
On the boys’ side, West Ranch was led by Dustin Saguros and Patrick Grant, who brought in a trio of wins including a collective first-place finish in the boys’ 200 medley relay. The two along with Mahdi Karim and Gabe Eke knocked off Valencia by less than a second, winning the event with a mark of 1 minute, 38.48 seconds.
Grant also brought in wins in the 100-yard freestyle race and the 100-yard backstroke. Grant finished with a solid lead in each event, winning the freestyle in 47.17 seconds and the latter in 52.66 seconds.
Saguros raced ahead in the 200 individual medley and took the 100yard breaststroke after a strong 57.55-second performance.
Eke, a sophomore, also topped the podium in the boys 50-yard freestyle race in 21.78 seconds.
West Ranch senior Colson Lloyd also added a ton of points, winning the boys 500-yard freestyle and helped the 200yard freestyle relay team featuring Eke, Karim and Brendan Keating take first place with a 1-minute, 29.87-second finish.
“The boys never disappoint,” Livingstone said. “Ever since the first league win in 2018, they haven’t wanted anything but to be No. 1. The whole team has stepped up every year. I can’t wait to see what both JV and varsity accomplish by the end of the season.”
Livingstone was proud of her team, which saw nearly 100 PRS across all levels of swim.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that every person on the team has a job to get done every meet and they take that job very seriously,” Livingstone said. “Whether it is securing a win in their event or finding a way to get their hand to the wall for that fifth-place, point-scoring position. At Wednesday’s meet we had 96 seasonbest times out of our 122 swims. We are nothing but excited moving forward into the home stretch of the season.”
West Ranch will take its league bye and be off for a couple of weeks before returning to the Aquatics Center to face Hart on Tuesday, April 9, at 3 p.m. Valencia returns to the pool on Tuesday and will take on Canyon at 3 p.m.
The teams will fight for PRS and podium spots but most importantly will look to stay on top of their crafts with league preliminaries just around the corner.
“So far things have gone great. Both varsity and JV boys remain undefeated going into the last few dual meets,” Livingstone said. “Varsity girls have won all but one, but they gave it their all against Valencia, so we can’t help but celebrate … Overall we are in a great spot. We have about four weeks left to get some good work in to get ready for the big showdown.”