Ramona, Del Norte to vie for girls league swim championship

By Joe Naiman

Ramona High School’s girls swim team finished the dual meet portion of the season with a 4-1 Valley League record after a May 3 home loss to Del Norte, which finished dual meet competition with a 5-0 league mark.

The Nighthawks’ 99-70 victory over Ramona, whose 89-64 victory April 30 at Valley Center set up the showdown between the two remaining teams without a league loss, gives Del Norte the advantage going into his week’s league meet at Del Norte. The final league standings, however, are based on both dual meet standings and the position in the league meet itself.

“I don’t know how exactly it’s going to play out,” said coach Jolyn Yanez. “It’s going to be an adventure.”

A school can enter up to three swimmers in each of the eight individual events at a dual meet and can enter up to four swimmers at the league meet. Since Ramona’s junior varsity defeated Del Norte by a 121-13 score, Yanez expects some of her junior varsity swimmers to reach the league finals Friday and earn points for the Bulldogs.

Ramona took first-place points in five of the 11 events during the Bulldogs’ win over Valley Center, which uses a metric pool. Valley Center’s team includes Makayla Markey, who won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle races at last year’s CIF meet. Against Ramona, Markey won the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly. Valley Center’s Kenya Piaz won the 200-meter freestyle and 400-meter freestyle events against the Bulldogs, and the Jaguars won two of the three relay events against Ramona.

The Bulldogs’ four individual event wins included two by Gina Lucas, who had times of 2:43.03 in the 200-meter individual medley and 1:23.58 in the 100-meter breaststroke. Paulina Bernd had a winning time of 1:09.13 in the 100-meter freestyle while Jocelyn Schwegler won the 100-meter backstroke in 1:19.38. Bernd, Logan Johnson, Schwegler, and Lucas won the 400-meter freestyle relay in 4:45.50.

Ramona had the fastest times in three of the 11 events against Del Norte. Schwegler, Bernd, Ashlee Holabird, and Josie Ward won the 200-yard medley relay in 2:05.89. Holabird’s winning time of 1:04.54 in the 100-yard butterfly is a consideration mark for the CIF meet, as is Kaylin vanTol’s third-place time of 1:09.46. Bernd won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:19.96.

Lucas was defeated in a dual meet individual event for the first time all season. Her time of 25.42 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle fell just short of the winning time of 25.34 seconds.

“She was not happy about that, bout getting touched out,” Yanez said.

Lucas was also touched out in the 100-yard freestyle despite a time of 55.17 seconds.

Ramona’s overall dual meet record for 2013 was 6-4.