Girls swim sixth at CIF meet

Ramona High School’s girls swim team finished sixth among Division II schools at the CIF meet.

“From my perspective it was an awesome CIF,” said Ramona coach Stacey Dusseault. “Everyone really stepped up and swam really fast. I was real thrilled.”

The CIF meet saw Ramona junior Breann Stevens set a school record in the 100-yard freestyle while finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle. Ramona senior Autie Hillis set a school record in the 100-yard backstroke. Ramona’s 200-yard freestyle relay team finished second at the CIF meet, and the Bulldogs had two wins in the consolation finals.

“I was excited about two school records,” Dusseault said. “It was a good meet.”

The CIF meet began with the preliminary heats May 20 at Rancho Bernardo High School. The swimmers and relay teams with the top six times in each event at the preliminaries advanced to the championship race at the finals May 23 at Rancho Bernardo while the next six times qualified for the consolation finals. Points were given for positions in the finals and the consolation finals.

“Sixth is pretty good considering we had an off-day Wednesday,” Dusseault said.

Ramona sophomore Madi Lanz was entered in two individual events and two relay races and swam in the preliminaries despite the flu.

“She was just really hurting,” Dusseault said.

Lanz made her time rather than her illness eliminate her in the 200-yard individual medley, where she placed 23rd among the 24 swimmers in the preliminary heat. She avoided elimination in the 100-yard butterfly, where her time of 1:01 placed seventh in the preliminaries.

“I was real impressed with how she swam on Wednesday just to get into consols,” Dusseault said.

Lanz won the consolation finals with a time of 59.6 seconds, which was also a personal record. Although she officially placed seventh, her time was the third-fastest of all swimmers that day.

“It was amazing,” Dusseault said. “For her to come back and swim on Saturday and do a best time, that’s great.”

Lanz was also ill the day after the preliminaries.

“She stuck through it,” Dusseault said. “I was real proud of her.”

The fastest time of the finals is also a new CIF record, as San Marcos’ Nicole Parmenter won the championship race in 55.2 seconds.

Lanz also led off the 400-yard freestyle relay team in the preliminaries, where the team’s time of 3:47.67 placed seventh and put Ramona into the consolation finals. In the consolation race sophomore Ellie Carrano, Lanz, senior Lauren Gantzer, and Stevens had a time of 3:44.06 for the event win and an official

seventh-place finish. The second-fastest team in the consolation finals took 3:52. One of the teams in the championship race was disqualified while the fifth-place team had a time of 3:40.46.

Hillis, sophomore Sydney Davison, Lanz, and junior Taylor Shinnick competed in the 200-yard medley relay and finished 15th in the preliminaries.

In the meet’s other relay race Ramona’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Carrano, Hillis, Gantzer, and Stevens had a season-best time of 1:41.67 in the finals, finishing second by one-quarter of a second as Mount Carmel won with a time of 1:41.42.

“It was a fun race. It was real exciting. It was back and forth, touch and go,” Dusseault said.

The time of a leadoff swimmer in a relay race can be used as a qualifying time for the CIF meet, and at the league meet Stevens started the 200-yard freestyle relay for Ramona. That allowed her to qualify for the CIF meet in the 50-yard freestyle even though she had not competed in the individual 50-yard event during the season. Stevens and Dusseault analyzed the competition and decided that Stevens had a better chance of earning more points in the 50-yard race than in the 200-yard individual freestyle event.

“She was just doing her sprints better at the end of the season,” Dusseault said.

Stevens had the second-fastest time of the preliminaries and then finished second in the finals. Haley Ferrer of Our Lady of Peace won the championship with a time of 24.30 seconds while Stevens posted a time of 24.90 seconds, narrowly missing the school record of 24.80 seconds.

“For someone who’s not really a 50 swimmer, I’m thrilled,” Dusseault said. “50’s not really her race.”

Lauren Gantzer’s 11th-place time in the preliminaries put her into the consolation finals, where she also finished 11th.

Hillis and Carrano were 18th and 19th respectively in the preliminaries, although both set personal records.

The 100-yard freestyle race proved to be extremely competitive with La Jolla’s Haren Alanis posting a winning time of 51.9 seconds and Ferrer placing second at 52.0 seconds. Stevens, who was sixth in the preliminaries, finished fifth with a time of 53.63 seconds.

“It was really a tough competition,” Dusseault said. “It was really a fast, fast race.”

Stevens’ time in the 100-yard freestyle is a new school record.

During the Mission Viejo Invitational held March 28 she had set a school record with a time of 53.66 seconds while finishing second. At last year’s CIF finals Stevens set what was then a school record with a time of 54.20 seconds.

“I’m always impressed with Breann,” Dusseault said.

A time of 55.6 seconds secured the 12th-place position in the preliminaries and eliminated Gantzer and Carrano from the finals despite personal records for both. Gantzer swam the preliminaries in 55.9 seconds and finished 14th while Carrano obtained 16th in the preliminaries at 56.4 seconds.

In the preliminaries Hillis set a school record with a time of 1:04.32 in the backstroke.

“She was very excited because that’s what her goal was for the season,” Dusseault said of the school record.

Hillis narrowly missed matching that record in the consolation finals, where her time of 1:04.57 placed her ninth.

“That was really exciting for her to end her senior year with a school record and a really strong CIF swim,” Dusseault said.

Shinnick set a personal record of 5:31.69 to earn eighth place in the 500-yard freestyle while junior Brice Maruna placed 13th in the preliminaries and missed the consolation finals by a single position. Shinnick placed 11th in the 200-yard freestyle competition while Maruna was 21st in the preliminaries.

“I thought we did pretty good,” Dusseault said of the CIF meet. “It was a nice way to kind of put the final stamp on the season.”