Metric pool no obstacle for Warrior girls

Fallbrook High School's girls swim team had their only Valley League road meet April 10 against Valley Center High School at Adams Park Pool, which is a 25-meter pool rather than one with the 25-yard length used by most San Diego County high schools, but the Warriors overcame their first trip to the metric pool and defeated the Jaguars by a 127-43 margin.

"We warned them to ignore the times, just get up and go," said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond. "The whole emphasis we went into was just get up and race, that's all that matters."

Times in a metric pool can be converted for automatic qualifying or consideration times for the CIF meet, although Redmond will rely on times for 25-yard pools. "We're not even going to be using the times," he said of the Adams Park Pool races.

The Valley League also includes Oceanside, whose home pool is Brook Street Pool. That pool is 33 1/3 yards long. Although the Pirates traveled to Fallbrook for this year's April 17 meet, El Camino High School also uses Brook Street Pool and in Fallbrook's previous Avocado West League affiliation the Warriors traveled there to face the Wildcats.

"At least at Brook Street you can still use the times, just not for the IM (the 200-yard individual medley which for a 25-yard pool involves 50 yards for each of four strokes but is a 266 2/3-yard race in Oceanside) or for the 50 (which is a 66 2/3-yard race for the individual freestyle and a total 266 2/3-yard race for the relay events which normally total 200 yards)," Redmond said.

The focus on opposition rather than times allowed the Warriors to win all 11 races, including nine in which the race for first and second was between two Fallbrook swimmers. Each school can enter up to three swimmers for each individual event and up to two quartets for each relay race. Fallbrook had the top two finishes in two of the three relay races and seven of the eight individual events while sweeping the three best positions in four individual events.

The meet opened with the 200-meter medley relay. Emma Thomas, Kori Prefontaine, Jordann Heimback, and Claudia Oppermann had a winning time of 2:20.87. Caitlyn Batty, Jazmin Patterson, Sarah Draves, and Taylor Dowden finished in 2:21.27 to give Fallbrook the second-place points as well as the winner's points. "It was a pretty close race," Redmond said.

The 200-meter freestyle race ended with Emily Larson posting a winning time of 2:46.33 and Jillian Edwards finishing second at 3:02.66. Fallbrook then took its first individual sweep of the day in the 200-meter individual medley with Heimback winning the race in 2:42.22, Draves finishing in 2:53.53, and Batty completing her laps in 2:55.05. Dowden won the 50-meter freestyle in 29.29 seconds with Madalyn Johnson taking second 29.98 seconds after the start of the race.

The Fallbrook sweep of the 100-meter butterfly was led by the Thomas sisters. Emma Thomas took 1:08.44; Amelia Thomas finished in 1:18.40; and Draves was third at 1:21.40.

The Warriors raced each other for the top two finishes inthe 100-meter freestyle. Johnson had a winning time of 1:08.40 while Oppermann completed her race in 1:08.79. "It was that way basically throughout the whole meet," Redmond said of races between Fallbrook swimmers for first place.

In a metric pool, the 500-yard freestyle race is replaced by the 400-meter freestyle. Emma Thomas won that race in 4:52.73; Dowden was second at 4:52.81; and Batty finished third with a time of 5:32.37. The swimmers completed 16 laps; in a 25-yard pool the 500-yard freestyle is 20 laps.

Dowden, Johnson, Oppermann, and Amelia Thomas won the 200-meter freestyle relay in 2:02.73. Amelia Thomas then won the 100-meter backstroke in 1:18.34 with Kayleen Fitzmaurice finishing second at 1:25.75 and Lauren Scrape posting a third-place time of 1:31.23.

In the only individual race where a Jaguar swimmer tooksecond place, Patterson won the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:36.55.

The meet concluded with the 400-meter freestyle relay. Emma Thomas, Patterson, Oppermann, and Johnson won the race with a time of 4:50.03. Amelia Thomas, Scrape, Fitzmaurice, and Draves finished second at 5:05.27.

The victory improved Fallbrook's Valley League record to 2-0 and the Warriors' overall mark to 5-1.