Warrior mermen victorious to start off dual meets

Fallbrook High School’s boys swim team had its first two home meets of the season March 9 against El Camino and March 11 against Rancho Buena Vista.

The Warriors won both dual meets, defeating El Camino by a 93-77 score and taking a 111-69 victory over the Longhorns.

“Just off to a great start,” said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

The Warriors began the 2011 season by taking first place at the Cougar Relays meet March 5 at Palomar College, where Fallbrook also posted automatic qualifying times for two of the three relay events contested at the CIF meet. In the first race of the March 9 meet, the Warriors earned an automatic time in the third CIF meet relay event when senior Garrett McGurk, sophomore Sam McDaniels, junior Garrett McKeown, and junior Mike Maryn won the 200-yard medley relay race in 1:44.94.

In Fallbrook’s first individual event of the season, McDaniels posted a CIF meet consideration time by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:52.46. Before the meet ended, Maryn posted an automatic qualifying time of 22.95 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle while also giving the Warriors first-place points in that race.

Each school can enter up to three swimmers in each of the eight individual events and up to two quartets in each relay event; the top five finishers in an individual race are scored and the top three relay teams in each race receive points (divers are only scored in a dual meet if both teams have divers, which was the case against Rancho Buena Vista but not against El Camino). Fallbrook swept the three relay events against El Camino while the Wildcats won six of the eight individual events, but Fallbrook’s depth gave the Warriors the 16-point victory.

“There were a lot of great races,” Richardson said. “A lot of kids got personal records.”

Senior Alec Carpenter had two CIF meet consideration times while finishing second in both of his individual events. He swam the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.06 and the 100-yard butterfly in 57.87 seconds. Maryn’s second-place time of 50.84 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle gave him consideration status, and McGurk took 1:00.66 in the 100-yard backstroke to earn second-place points and a consideration time.

McKeown, senior Dane Oppenborn, senior Drew Ferguson, and Carpenter won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:36.13. McDaniels, Carpenter, McGurk, and Maryn won the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:25.82.

“It was a great win. El Camino has a really good team this year,” Richardson said. “It was a great start to the season.”

McKeown, McDaniels, Carpenter, and McGurk won the 200-yard medley relay against Rancho Buena Vista with a time of 2:46.00. McDaniels then won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:52.58, and McKeown posted a consideration time of 2:11.22 while winning the 200-yard individual medley. McKeown swam a consideration time of 57.47 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly, and Maryn had a time of 52.08 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. Carpenter won the 100-yard backstroke with a consideration time of 1:00.57, and McDaniels’ consideration time of 1:05.08 won the 100-yard breaststroke. McGurk placed second in the 500-yard freestyle race but had a consideration time of 5:18.01. Carpenter, Maryn, Ferguson, and McDaniels won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:34.48 while McGurk, Maryn, Ferguson, and McKeown took 3:33.38 to win the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“The boys swimmers are doing real well,” Richardson said. “They should win the league this year.”

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