Bulldog mermen start season with wins
By Joe Naiman
Ramona High School’s boys swim team began the 2014 season with victories March 7 at Santana High School’s pool and March 12 in a tri-meet at Grossmont High School.
The tri-meet included Patrick Henry High School.
The Bulldogs defeated Santana by a score of 87-83.
“That’s exciting. I’m thrilled to start off with a win,” said coach Jolyn Yanez.
A high school swim meet begins with the 200-yard medley relay. Ramona’s quartet of Garrett Glaudini, Carlo Silva, Luca Pasqualini and Cory Davison not only won the four-stroke race but also posted an automatic qualifying time for the CIF meet by completing the competition in 1:47.66.
Each school is allowed to enter up to two teams in each of the three relay races. The scoring system for relay races gives 8 points to the first-place team, 4 for second place, and 2 for third place. The 400-yard freestyle race concludes a high school meet, and the 3:31.25 posted by Pasqualini, Silva, Davison and Glaudini gave Ramona the deciding points while also giving the Bulldogs a CIF meet consideration time in that event.
Glaudini won his two individual races while posting automatic qualifying times in both. He took 49.19 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle and 58.00 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke.
Silva also won two individual races, both with consideration times, as well as two relay races. He finished the 200-yard individual medley in 2:10.17 and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:03.06. A school can enter up to three swimmers in an individual event, and Davison’s breaststroke time of 1:06.00 earned second-place points for the Bulldogs, along with a consideration mark for the CIF meet.
Pasqualini is an exchange student from Italy. Although he did not win either of his individual events, he obtained CIF meet consideration times in both while obtaining second-place finishes. He swam the 200-yard freestyle in 1:58.84 and the 100-yard butterfly in 1:01.06.
Ramona’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Tyler Crouch, Ethan Blackburn, Jacob Powers, and Spencer Schwegler finished second, but earned a consideration time of 1:47.85. Schwegler placed third in the 500-yard freestyle but posted a consideration time of 5:32.44.
“We’re pretty evenly matched,” Yanez said.
Because selection for the CIF meet is based solely on qualifying times for individual swimmers and relay teams, non-league records have no impact on a team’s post-season participation although qualifying marks posted at non-league meets can be used for CIF qualifying and seeding times. Rather than comparing results between two different schools at the tri-meet, the March 12 competition utilized the number of points for each school. Ramona finished with 176 points, Grossmont had 174 points, and Patrick Henry accumulated 149 points.
“It was a tight meet and it was exciting,” Yanez said.
Glaudini, Silva, Pasqualini, and Davison won the 200-yard medley relay while improving Ramona’s CIF qualifying mark to 1:43.02. Their winning time of 3:28.25 in the 400-yard freestyle relay is an automatic standard. Blackburn, Powers, Connor Close, and Schwegler finished second in the 200-yard freestyle relay but improved Ramona’s consideration time to 1:45.77.
Silva upgraded his 200-yard individual medley CIF meet status to automatic by winning the race in 2:07.48. Silva also upgraded his 100-yard breaststroke qualifying time to automatic by winning the race in 1:02.13, while Davison was second at 1:06.81. Glaudini won the 50-yard freestyle with an automatic qualifying time of 22.65 seconds and won the 100-yard backstroke in 58.04 seconds. Davison won the 100-yard freestyle in 52.61 seconds. Schwegler was second in the 500-yard freestyle while lowering his consideration time to 5:31.02.
The Bulldogs’ first home meet will take place Thursday against San Marcos.