Stockdale dominates SWYL swim meet
| Friday, May 02 2008 01:47 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 08:25 PM
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Stockdale High's Dan Wickensheimer comes out of the water as he competes in the varsity 100-meter butterfly in the SWYL swimming finals.
Olivia Ramos cheers on her Stockdale High teammate Dan Wickensheimer in the boys varsity 100 butterfly Thursday at the SWYL swimming finals.
Frontier High's Randy Aakhus swims to a victory in the boys varsity 500-meter freestyle at the SWYL swimming finals.
Brian Collier knelt down and said a quick prayer before the start of the boys 100-yard breaststroke race during Thursday's Southwest Yosemite League swimming championships at Cal State Bakersfield.
But the way Collier and his Stockdale teammates on both the boys and girls sides performed, it was the Mustangs competition that needed divine intervention.
Stockdale won 16 of the meet's 22 events to sweep the team titles. Led by double event winners Emily Irvin and Sara Ramos, the Stockdale girls outscored second place Centennial 415-259. Wins in the 50 and 100 free by Stevie Hughey helped Frontier finish third with 213.
"I thought that the girls had an outstanding meet," said Stockdale coach Adam Bledsoe. "I really liked the way they raced today. The girls that hadn't achieved their valley cuts got that accomplished today. I was just thrilled with that."
The Stockdale boys were just as dominant. Dan Wickensheimer won the 50 free and 100 fly plus was part of two winning relay teams as the Mustangs outdistanced nearest challenger Centennial 432.5 to 290. The Frontier boys took third with 216 points.
Collier's prayers were answered as he posted a season-best 1:02.47 to win the 100 breaststroke for the second straight year after finishing second by less than a second to Frontier's Randy Aakhus in the 200 IM.
"My coach just got me pumped up before the race," Collier said of his win in the 100 breaststroke. "He was getting mad at me because earlier I was acting all lazy. I just wanted to show him that I could go a 59 but I was three seconds off. Throughout the whole race I was just focused on winning."
Aakhus also won the 500 free in 4:44.88, nearly 15 seconds ahead of second-place Vance Elmore of Centennial.
Wickensheimer won four races on the same day for the first time in his high school career.
"My 50 freestlye, it felt a lot stronger in the water than I have in the past," Wickensheimer said. "It's my personal best time ... I haven't even started tapering yet. After tapering I should be going a little bit to a lot faster."
Collier and Wickensheimer weren't the only individual winners on the boys side for Stockdale. John Kim won the 100 backstroke and Lawrence Fujiwara won the 100 free.
The Mustangs also won all three boys relay races.
"This is the deepest team that we've had since I've been coaching the (boys) varsity team," Bledsoe said.
Centennial's Jordan Lee was the only non-Stockdale boy not named Aakhus to win an event, posting a 1:53.96 in the 200 free.
Irvin scored big points for the Stockdale girls with wins in the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, as did Ramos, who won the 100 fly and 100 back.
Other winners for the Mustangs included Olivia Ramos in the 200 free and Franchesca Wyatt in the 500 free.
But the one girl Stockdale couldn't beat was Hughey. The Frontier junior dominated the 50 and 100 free events. Her time of 24.87 in the 50 was 2.35 seconds faster than her teammate and second-place finisher Clarissa Gardella.
Hughey was just as dominant in the 100 free, with a winning time of 54.66, which was nearly four seconds faster than her closest challenger.
