With all the inclement weather going on in Southern California, Golden Valley and Hart swim teams needed to face off against each other in their first Foothill League meet of the season at the Santa Clarita Aquatics Center on Tuesday.
Hart swept the meet as both varsity squads won in dominant fashion. The boys team won 125-37 and the girls team by a similar margin 138-30.
“I really wanted to see some good swims and to push each other today,” said Hart head coach Steve Neale. “To tell you the truth, a lot of our kids swam out of their comfort event. I had sprinters swim the 500 and butterfliers swim the breaststroke, so that was the goal, to be fast in other strokes and be competitive.”
Hart’s Taylor Toledo and Alyssa Hamilton both walked away with four first-place trophies on the day.
Toledo placed first in the 200-yard individual medley in two minutes and 21.30 seconds and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:15.17.
Hamilton took first in both the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.76 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle, beating Ellie Horst by less than a minute in both events.
Toledo also took home first place in the 200-yard medley relay with Madeleine Chan, Genesis Lewis and Megan Soto. Hamilton also won first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with teammates Hadley DelHoyo, Lewis and Alexis Barrios
The two shared first-place honors in the 400-yard freestyle relay along with DelHoyo and Barrios.
“I just wanted to work as hard as I can, so we are just trying to get ahead,” Toledo said. “We are pretty strong this year, we have a lot of good flyers and good backstrokers. We are pretty ready for the season ahead of us.”
Lewis recorded a time of 1:02.16 for first in the 100-yard butterfly.
Hart freshman Emily Yoon and Colette Masino took first place in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:04.40 second and in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:46.35, respectively.
Hope Hill was the Hart girls winner beating out Yoon and Soto for first place in the 100-yard backstroke in 1-minute and 2.10-seconds.
Senior Dawson Waage had the most prolific day for the Hart boys team, winning individual events 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.07 and 100-yard backstroke in 54.76 seconds, and the 200-yard medley relay (Jacob Gragas, Luke Christensen, Waage, Joshua Gragas) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (David Kugler, Christensen, Karson Marquez-Barrett, Joshua Munoz).
Along with the two relay wins, Christensen also placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:07.48.
Kugler also finished with an individual trophy beating out Christensen by eight seconds in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:56.37 seconds.
The two teamed up with Marquez-Barrett and Munoz to win the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:38.76 seconds.
Hart’s Nick Julian finished the 500-yard freestyle in 5:48.48 defeating teammate M’Khitar Getikian by one second.
Maxwell Heyborne and Kyle Brill won first in the 100-yard freestyle (51.65) and in the 50-yard freestyle (23.28), respectively for the Indians.
Jonathan Quick rounded out the Hart boys winners on the day taking home first-place in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:58.43.
“I felt pretty good,” Quick said. “I just came off a taper meet, so I’m pretty tired. It’s one of my off events, so I feel good about the time. We just wanted to improve on our weaknesses, pretty much.”
With the win, Hart begins Foothill League 1-0 and Golden Valley falls to 0-1.
Next up for Hart and Golden Valley is the SCV Relays at the SCAC on Thursday, Mar. 14.
“Today we just wanted to break as many personal bests as possible and keep their morale up,” said Golden Valley head coach Whitney Cox. “It’s a tough meet for them, Hart swims really well, so I just wanted to them to focus on how they are swimming and what their times are and pumping up their teammates. They did an excellent job today. We had a lot of best times, so we are really proud of them as a whole. They did great and I think that they feel really good about themselves today.”
