Glaudini sets school records in 200 and 500 freestyle events
By Joe Naiman
Ramona High School sophomore Garrett Glaudini lowered his school records in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle events during the CIF swim meet at Del Norte High School.
Glaudini, whose old records were set at last year’s CIF finals, broke both records during the May 17 preliminaries and lowered both marks again during the May 19 finals.
“He swam great,” said Coach Frank Yturralde.
The Bulldogs as a team finished 12th among the 24 Division II schools.
“We were right in the middle,” Yturralde said.
Glaudini’s time of 1:43.80 in the 200-yard freestyle was the second-fastest time in the preliminary heats. It also erased his school record of 1:44.69, which he set while finishing ninth in last year’s CIF finals. Glaudini’s new record lasted two days; in this year’s finals his time of 1:42.44 gave him third place.
Glaudini also had the second-fastest preliminaries time in the 500-yard freestyle. His 4:37.16 eclipsed his school record of 4:37.84 which was worth fifth place in last year’s CIF finals. In this year’s CIF finals his time of 4:34.54 was bettered only by the 4:28.70 posted by Grant Schenk of Mt. Carmel.
“That was a really, really good race,” Yturralde said. “It was probably one of the best races I’ve seen. Those guys went at it until the last 50 yards and then Grant just started pulling away.”
Yturralde noted that Glaudini will be tapering for the Olympic trials, which will take place next month in Omaha, and didn’t taper for the CIF meet.
Glaudini also led off Ramona’s 200-yard medley relay team with the backstroke. Fellow sophomore Carlo Silva followed with the breaststroke, Ted Dean swam the butterfly, and Nathan Creswell was Ramona’s freestyle swimmer. Their time of 1:43.27 in the preliminaries placed eighth, giving them a lane in the consolation finals where their 1:42.77 placed second in that race for an eighth-place overall finish and the team’s fastest time of 2012.
The swimmers or relay teams with the event’s top six times in the preliminary heats earn lanes in the championship finals while those with the next six fastest times can compete in the consolation race. Dean’s time of 1:53.53 in the 200-yard freestyle preliminaries placed 19th, so he did not advance to the finals.
All swimmers with an automatic time in an event qualify for the CIF preliminaries and the fastest consideration times are used to round out the field of 24 swimmers (a swimmer is limited to two individual events regardless of the number of events in which he has a qualifying time). Dean’s time of 58.23 seconds was the consideration cutoff in the 100-yard butterfly, and although his preliminaries time was 58.33 seconds he moved up to 22nd place among those swimmers.
Dean, a senior, closed out his Ramona High School career in the 200-yard freestyle relay as did senior Nathan Creswell. Dean, Creswell, freshman Cory Davison, and Glaudini placed ninth in the preliminaries with a time of 1:35.64. Sophomore Jesse Reiling replaced Davison in the finals, where Ramona’s 1:34.34 retained ninth place but was the Bulldogs’ best time of the year.