Girls swim wins nine of twelve events in league opener

Fallbrook High School’s girls swim began Valley League competition March 27 with a home meet against Escondido Charter High School, and the Warriors took first-place points in nine of the 12 events to garner a 120-51 victory over the White Tigers.

“I thought we had some really good swims out of it,” said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond. “It was a good meet to bounce back from after losing a close meet to Valhalla on Wednesday.”

Fallbrook entered the league opener with a 3-1 overall record, including the 96-87 loss March 25 against Valhalla. On March 21 the Warriors traveled to Del Norte for a dual meet and defeated the Nighthawks by a 94-91 margin. The Warriors needed to take first and third in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, for the victory, and the Fallbrook swimmers captured those position points.

The Warriors followed their 99-69 home victory March 5 against El Camino to open the season with a 101-79 home win March 13 against San Marcos.

A dual meet begins with the 200-yard medley relay. Fallbrook’s March 27 quartet of Caitlyn Batty, Taylor Dowden, Emma Thomas, and Jordann Heimback won that race in 2:02.13. Each school can enter up to two relay squads in a relay race, and Fallbrook’s “B” team of Ariana Young, Sierra Peterson, Amelia Thomas, and Madalyn Johnson placed second at 2:05.34.

The first individual race is the 200-yard freestyle, in which senior Claudia Oppermann began her final league season with a winning time of 2:12.42.

Fallbrook took both first and second in the next two events. Young won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:26.86, which is a consideration time for the CIF meet, and Jazmin Patterson completed the four events in 2:34.43. Amelia Thomas posted a consideration time of 26.17 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle while Heimback had a 27.54-second swim.

In a dual meet, the diving is scored only if both teams have declared divers for the season. Fallbrook’s only diver, Jessica Fagrell, was ill and did not compete. That cost Fallbrook the four second-place points, although Escondido Charter senior Taylor Pamplin has won the CIF diving championship in each of the past three seasons and it is extremely doubtful that Fagrell could have bettered the 295.90 points Pamplin accumulated on six dives.

After the swimming portion resumed, Dowden posted a consideration time of 1:03.54 to take first place in the 100-yard butterfly. Each school is allowed up to three swimmers in an individual race, and the Warriors swept the top positions in the next two events. The 100-yard freestyle concluded with a consideration time of 57.96 seconds for Emma Thomas, a 59.11-second performance for Heimback, and a 1:04.86 result for Peterson. Sarah Draves won the 500-yard freestyle race in 6:06.13 with Patterson taking second at 6:15.68 and Jillian Edwards achieving the third-place time of 7:31.23.

After Escondido Charter won the 200-yard freestyle relay, Dowden won the 100-yard backstroke with a consideration time of 1:05.35. The final individual event, the 100-yard breaststroke, ended with the White Tigers earning the first-place points.

Fallbrook took both first and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay to close out the meet. Johnson, Young, Dowden, and Heimback swam the race in 3:49.63. Emma Thomas, Patterson, Amelia Thomas, and Oppermann had a time of 3:52.63.