Powell earns 12th in state swim meet

Ramona High School senior Brandon Powell closed out his high school athletic career with 12th place in the100-yard butterfly event at the CIF state swim meet in Clovis May 20-21.

“It was a tremendous cap on his high school season and I’m just thrilled that he could go and represent Ramona High School at such a high level,” said coach Jolyn Yanez. “Ramona has its first state qualifier and also its first state finalist.”

The top three swimmers in each event at the CIF San Diego Section meet May 14 qualified for the state meet. Powell had a time of 50.19 seconds in the butterfly to place third among Division II swimmers and fourth overall, and when one of the swimmers with a faster time opted for the Olympic trials Powell advanced to the state meet.

Powell thus became the first-ever Ramona swimmer to compete at the state meet.

“It was an outstanding meet,” Yanez said.

In his preliminaries heat on May 20, Powell swam the butterfly race in 50.79.

“He had a decent swim,” Yanez said.

The top eight times in each event qualified those swimmers for the championship finals while the next eight times were worth lanes in the consolation final. Powell had the 18th-place time in the preliminaries, which gave him second alternate status.

“We kind of thought at that point his meet was over,” Yanez said.

Two of the actual qualifiers scratched out of the finals.

“He actually got scratched in at 16th,” Yanez said.

Powell swam the consolation race in 50.29 to finish fourth in that race, thus giving him 12th place in the state.

“All in all it was an absolutely outstanding swim,” Yanez said.