Young Bulldog swimmers fall to Wildcats

By Joe Naiman

Ramona High School boys swim coach Frank Yturralde has had to provide some extra coaching to this year’s swim team.

“I lost a lot of seniors last year. I’ve got a very young team,” Yturralde said. “They’re still trying to make that transition.”

Yturralde lost five seniors from his 2011 team, and a sixth 2011 swimmer opted not to swim as a senior this year.

“We’re rebuilding,” Yturralde said.

Since each swimmer is limited to two individual races and two relay races for one meet, at least 12 swimmers are needed for a team to have full scoring opportunities. Ramona has nine varsity swimmers.

“I don’t have a full complement,” Yturralde said.

That was evident in Ramona’s 116-45 loss to El Camino in the Bulldogs’ home opener March 20.

“El Camino’s not a bad team. They had a lot of good swimmers,” Yturralde said.

Ramona — specifically sophomore Garrett Glaudini — won two of the 11 events in the meet against the Wildcats. Glaudini’s times of 1:47.3 in the 200-yard freestyle and 57.27 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke are automatic qualifying times for the CIF meet.

The Bulldogs will follow spring break with an April 10 Palomar League meet at Rancho Bernardo.