Randy Aakhus did not attain his preseason goal of breaking 1 minute, 50 seconds in his bread-and-butter event, the 200-yard individual medley.

But the Frontier High senior wasn't too disappointed. He repeated as a high school All-American in the event when he closed out his prep career as the Central Section champion with a 1:52.28, and he added a first-place 58.99 in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Aakhus, the only two-event Valley champion from Kern County, has been named The Californian's All-Area Boys Swimmer of the Year.

Jake Tittl, a senior at Liberty, is the All-Area Diver of the Year after placing second in the Central Section.

Aakhus' lifetime best in the 200 IM is 1:51.75, set his junior year when he won the section title. The UC Santa Barbara signee also was second in the 500 freestyle this year and helped Frontier take second in the 200 medley relay.

"It's going to be fun to see where he'll find his place at Santa Barbara," Frontier coach Candice Urmstron said. "He swam in just about every event for us this season -- wherever we needed him to score points. It wasn't until the Valley meet he was able to choose which events he wanted to swim."

Urmstron noted that Aakhus entered the section championships as the No. 2 seed in the 200 IM.

"Then in the prelims, he dropped four seconds off his seeded time," Urmstron said.

The season didn't start off well for Aakhus. He said teeth problems led to illness in the fall.

"Once my wisdom teeth were pulled, I got better," he said.

He had a solid meet at the Junior Nationals in Orlando, Fla., March 17-22.

"I did really good, dropping my times in everything," Aakhus said.

But the fifth day of that meet, he had -- for him -- a poor showing in the 200 IM, which served as motivation.

"I needed a redemption swim at Valley," he said.

Aakhus said he expects to shave more time off his personal bests once he begins swimming collegiately.

"A lot of guys before college are already doing 2-a-days and already touching the weights," he said. "I'm doing almost no work compared to what a lot of people do around the country. When I get to (UCSB), I hope to speed it up."