Win over Oceanside gives Bulldog mermen winning record
Ramona High School’s boys swim team finished the 2010 dual meet season with a winning record after a 119-47 home win May 4 over Oceanside.
The Bulldogs improved their record to 4-3 with the win over Oceanside. Because the Pirates did not have a diver, Josh Sammons dove for CIF meet eligibility only and his six points were not counted in Ramona’s team score. The Bulldogs won nine of the eleven races, ceding only the 100-yard breaststroke and the 50-yard freestyle. The meet also saw three school junior varsity records broken.
“It was a really fun event,” said Ramona coach Frank Yturralde. “All of the guys swam different events. They told me what events they wanted to swim.”
The May 4 meet was also the final high school regular-season meet and the final home meet for Ramona senior Michael Bernas. In his Ramona farewell, Bernas won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.24, set a personal record of 24.39 seconds while finishing third in 50-yard freestyle, swam the backstroke on the winning 200-yard medley relay team, and was on the 200-yard freestyle relay team, which finished second to Ramona’s other quartet in that race.
The 200-yard medley relay saw Bernas’ backstroke followed by Levi Landon swimming the breaststroke, Ted Dean covering 50 yards by butterfly stroke, and Stephen Donnellan closing with the freestyle. That Ramona team won the race with a time of 1:57.78.
The winning 200-yard freestyle relay team of James Oneto, Alan Williams, Kari Gonter, and Collin Torsak took 1:36.13. Torsak, Oneto, Williams, and Gonter spent 3:38.60 of pool time winning the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Oneto also won two individual events, taking 2:15.41 to complete the 200-yard individual medley and 59.49 seconds to prevail in the 100-yard backstroke. Torsak won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:59.48 and Williams required 53.09 seconds to win the 100-yard freestyle. A lap counting error deprived Donnellan of an official time for the 500-yard freestyle race he won.
“Very happy with the times,” Yturralde said. “Even with all the yardage that they’re doing, they’re swimming close to their best times.”
The junior varsity races saw Nathan Creswell, Billy Johnson, Clinton Jones, and Zach Lane swim the 200-yard medley relay in 2:09 to set a school record for a JV race. Johnson set a JV school record by swimming the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:15.67 while Creswell’s time of 1:06.29 became the new JV school record for the 100-yard backstroke.
“A lot of the JV guys are swimming almost as fast as the varsity guys,” Yturralde said. “It was a good meet and very productive.”
In a dual meet a team can enter up to three swimmers per individual event. Teams at the league meet can enter up to four swimmers per event, which gives JV swimmers experience for subsequent years.
Today Sammons travels to Fallbrook High School for the league diving competition. The swimmers will travel to Del Norte High School tomorrow for the league meet preliminary heats while those qualifying for the league championship races will return to Del Norte on Saturday.