The Santa Margarita boys and girls swim teams defended their titles Saturday at the CIF state championships at Clovis West High School in Fresno. The Eagles' girls achieved their fifth consecutive championship, and the boys also achieved their second consecutive championship by setting the record for the most points. (Courtesy of Rene Blanc-Supernow)
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The Santa Margarita girls and boys swim teams didn't have to go all out or be perfect to comfortably defend their titles at Saturday's CIF State Swimming and Diving Championships in Fresno.
That's how dominant the Eagles program has become.
Santa Margarita's girls team scored 210 points over Clovis West High School, winning its fifth straight state crown in eight years of competition.
Despite racing without standout Teagan O'Dell, they dominated the freestyle relay with a 52-point lead over second-place Carondelet. The junior decided not to participate in the competition and instead focus on training for the Olympic trials to be held in Indianapolis next month.
The Eagles men scored a tournament record 248 points, 51.5 points ahead of second-place Northwood in distance and 59 points ahead of third-place Loyola. Although they did not hold all of their seedings going into the meet, their lower times allowed them to finish second in all three relays.
“It's a great way to end the season,” Santa Margarita coach Rich Brann said.
Northwood University's men's team broke an Orange County record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, and other highlights included Liberty Christian freshman Bianca Nwais winning the women's breaststroke.
But Santa Margarita made its mark in team competition.
Junior Gracine Aquino paced the Santa Margarita girls, taking second in the 50 free (22.76) and fourth in the 100 free (50.19).
She also won the 400-meter free relay with a time of 3:22.80. She teamed with Victoria Mori, Audrey Lee, and Ariel Lin to help the Eagles win five straight championships.
Santa Margarita showed its depth in the 200 free relay. The team of Mori, Morgan Hoppe, Lynn and anchor Chloe Stinson held off San Ramon Valley by 12-100ths of a second, taking the lead in 1:33.35.
This was Santa Margarita's sixth consecutive state championship in the sprint relay.
Although the Eagles boys did not win any individual championships, they did send several players to the finals. Senior Daniel Verdraga took second in the butterfly (47.23 points) and senior Hunter Chehernik took third in the 100 free (44.24 points).
The Northwood boys and the Santa Margarita boys fell short of the county record for the second straight meet in the 400-meter free relay. And just like in the CIF-SS Division 1 finals, the Timberwolves won in record time.
The team of Northwood's Derek Hitchens (44.53), Elson Lee (45.50), Will Chen (44.01) and anchor Andrew Maksimimovski (44.00) set the county record He recorded a time of 2 minutes 58.04 seconds.
Santa Margarita's team of Chehernik (44.36), Verdraga (44.54), Adam Lee (45.87) and Ramon Jean (43.91) clocked a total time of 2:58.68, completing the 2 hour They joined Northwood as the only county relays to break the 59-minute mark.
Nuwais was the only county swimmer to win a state title. She set a county-leading 1:00.23 in the 100-meter breaststroke, the second fastest time in county history. Odell holds the record with 59.73 points from last season.
With her win, Ms. Nuwais becomes the first OC female athlete to win the state breaststroke title since Crean Lutheran Church's Ella Eastin set the then-county record with a time of 1:00.33 in 2015. It became.
Villa Park's Alison Mann capped off a stellar career by finishing fifth in the 50 free (23.16) and second in the 100 free (49.81).
Woodbridge senior Zara Masoud also had strong results, finishing fifth in the 200m free (1:49.58) and butterfly (53.92).
