Girls swim is third at CIF meet and wins 200 freestyle relay
Ramona High School’s girls swim team placed third among Division II schools at the CIF swim meet May 22 at Coronado High School.
The Bulldogs finished two points behind second-place Valhalla.
Ramona’s 200-yard freestyle relay team won its race while earning an All-American consideration time and setting a school record, and three other school records were broken during the CIF finals or during the CIF preliminaries May 20 at Coronado.
“Great meet,” said Ramona coach Jolyn Yanez.
Cathedral Catholic won the Division II championship, and the battle for second place came down to the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Valhalla finished second in that race while Ramona was third despite setting a school record.
“It was very close,” Yanez said.
Ramona’s 200-yard freestyle relay team consisted of junior Katherine Abbott, junior Madi Lanz, freshman Gina Lucas, and senior Breann Stevens. Their time of 1:39.48 erased the 2008 school record of 1:40.48 while winning the race.
“Tremendously exciting,” Yanez said.
The top 130 times in the nation will earn All-American status, so the Bulldogs will learn whether they receive All-American distinction.
“It’s nice to have that kind of a swim happen at the culminating event,” Yanez said. “You feel like you’ve done the right things all season.”
In the 400-yard freestyle relay Abbott, freshman Lisse Litka-Baughman, Lucas, and Stevens had a time of 3:38.50, lowering the school record from the 2008 mark of 3:39.67.
In her preliminary race Lanz swam the 100-yard butterfly in 58.05 seconds to break Abbott’s school record of 58.19 seconds set in 2008. Lanz’s time in the finals of 58.18 seconds placed her third behind seniors Nicole Parmenter of San Marcos and Allison Knight of La Jolla. “Madi’s got herself in a pretty good situation for taking that next year,” Yanez said. “It was a tremendous achievement for her.”
Lanz was ill during the 2009 CIF preliminaries and only qualified for the consolation finals but won that race.
Litka-Baughman swam the 500-yard freestyle race in 5:15.67 during the preliminaries to take the school record from Stevens, who posted a time of 5:18.95 in 2007. In the finals Litka-Baughman had a time of 5:17.26 to place fifth.
Ramona placed second in the 2008 CIF meet despite not having a diver and actually had more swimming points than winner Cathedral Catholic, so Yanez notes the significance of three of the former records having been set during that season.
“The fact that four of those records fell and we were so close to runner-up says a lot about the caliber of these girls,” she said of the 2010 team.
Mount Carmel, which won the Valley League meet, was fifth among Division II schools at the CIF meet.
“I was pretty excited that the best of the best was able to overcome our number one rivals in our own league, so that was exciting,” Yanez said.
The swimmers or relay teams with the six fastest times in each event during the preliminaries advance to the championship race during the CIF finals while those with the seventh through 12th times return for the consolation finals. Stevens’ final high school meet also saw her reach the championship races in two individual events. Her time of 25.24 seconds placed fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, and her final individual race saw her post a fourth-place time of 54.01 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle.
“She took it out incredibly fast and really did a great job,” Yanez said.
Ramona’s other two seniors, Brice Maruna and Taylor Shinnick, both swam the consolation race in the 500-yard freestyle.
Maruna’s time of 5:36.86 gave her ninth place while Shinnick was 10th at 5:38.20.
Lucas also qualified for an individual championship race and finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.11. She had posted a time of 1:08.76 in the preliminaries two days earlier. Lucas was in the consolation finals of the 100-yard butterfly and placed ninth with a time of 1:00.01.
Litka-Baughman reached the consolation finals in the 200-yard freestyle and posted a personal-best time of 1:56.04, which placed her 10th.
Ramona’s 200-yard medley relay team of Litka-Baughman, junior Sydney Davison, Lanz, and junior Ellie Carrano was eighth after a consolation finals time of 1:58.17.