With two more swim meets before Foothill League preliminaries, Valencia and Hart swim knew that it was going to be a dogfight in the dual meet Tuesday afternoon.
Both Hart teams swept, with the boys winning 102-68 and the girls winning by a tighter margin, 93-77.
“League prelims will be interesting because of how West Ranch and Valencia fare next week,” said Hart head coach Steve Neale. “If Valencia beats West Ranch, we will have three teams tied for first.”
Hart boys standout Jonathan Quick took home first place in the 100-yard butterfly (53.42 seconds) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:50.02), as well as the 200-yard medley relay (Quick, Kyle Brill, Ryan Sevidal, Dawson Waage) and 400-yard freestyle relay (Quick, Cade Klement, Ryan Sevidal, Maxwell Heyborne).
Dawson Waage also had a good day, winning with 200-yard medley relay and the 100-yard freestyle (48.38).
With an interesting strategy, in the last race of the day, Neale changed up the 400-yard freestyle relay A and B teams by assigning Dawson to race second on the B team. The strategy paid off as the Indians took home first and second in the race.
“This win is really big because last year they were really big competitors,” said Dawson about the big win over Valencia. “It’s looking really good for leagues this year (with) West Ranch being our main competition.”
For the Hart girls, Brooke Helgeson had a strong day, taking home first place in the 200-yard freestyle (1:59.48), the 500-yard freestyle (5:15.37) and a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay (Helgeson, Alyssa Hamilton, Gracie Hill, Hope Hill).
Taylor Toledo took home first in the 100-yard butterfly (59.67) and Maxine Catig took first in the 100-yard backstroke (59.26).
“I loved her… that was just guts in the 100 fly,” Neale said about Toledo. “That was just a ‘gutty’ swim against some quality swimmers.”
“This is a huge win preparing us for league,” said Toledo. “This is kind of the set time for whoever is going to win league and we are all pumped because this is the first time in a while that we have beaten Valencia.”
Even though the Vikings didn’t win the meet, they had some strong individual swimmers.
For the girls, Izabella Adame took first-place in the 200-yard individual medley (2:07.51) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.28). She also won in the 200-yard medley relay (Adame, Jin Young Yi, Emma Hiett, Allison Cho) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (Adame, Jin Young Yi, Julia Unas, Allison Cho).
For the Valencia boys, Joshua Lee took home three first-place finishes with wins in the 200-yard individual medley (1:59.36) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.81) as well as first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay (Lee, Dylan Perante, Ronit Shresta, Jacob Gibbs)
“It was a great meet against Hart today,” said Valencia head coach Kathryn Rosenast. “The Hart girls especially swam phenomenally and the boys did a really great job. We made a couple tactical mistakes with some false starts and DQ’s. It’s a learning experience. We go from here.”
Adding, “You’re never out until the end.”
Hart hosts on Canyon on the April 26. And Valencia will host West Ranch a day before on April 25.
