Garces sweeps Division II titles
| Saturday, May 09 2009 11:04 PM
Last Updated Monday, May 11 2009 11:39 AM
Images
Garces' Paul Steele swims the third leg of the 400 relay Saturday during the Central Section Division II championships at Tulure Union. Garces won the event.
TULARE -- The Garces boys swimming team congregated at the edge of the pool at Tulare Union High, cheering and cajoling, trying to turn a very good Saturday into a great one.
The boys had already overwhelmed the field at the Central Section Division II swimming and diving championships, and the girls, in the pool for the 400-yard freestyle relay, needed a finish of third or better to give the school a sweep of the section titles.
Kingsburg won the event, but Garces sophomore Catherine Lugo hit the wall in second, allowing the Rams to hold off the Vikings 294.5-290.5.
"Harder to watch them (than swim)," Garces junior Paul Steele said. "When I'm swimming; I forget about everything and just focus. It's harder to get all excited just watching and cheering."
Steele and his mates did the girls one better in the next race, recording a season-best 3:23.63 to win the relay and cement a 376-185 edge on Oakhurst-Yosemite.
The girls race was fitting because they clinched the championship with a second-place finish. The Rams had just one individual champion, junior Paige Lifquist. She won the 500 freestyle in 5:38.19.
"I really could not try any harder than I did today," Lifquist said. "I gave it all I've got, so I'm pretty happy about that."
But the rest of the team chipped in throughout the day, finishing second in two relays and third in the other, and scoring double-digit points in every event but one.
"Probably the best we've done in a long time," Garces coach Bill Potter said. "Coming in, we were pretty sure on the boys as long as they swam fast. The girls we knew was going to be really close.
"The girls and guys swam so fast today, that even if we had gotten fourth place or lower in that last relay, they ended the season wonderful."
The boys also won just won event -- the final relay -- but were even more dominant with their depth. Steele, Andrew Whittington and Ryan Farrer finished 2-3-4 in the 100 freestyle, and the Rams occupied a top-five spot in seven of 11 races.
"Today is a really fun day," Steele said. "Not a lot of pressure, just come in and swim. We've got a lot of depth, and everybody did a really great job about time."
Now it's on to Porterville for next week's overall section championships, where the Rams will be joined by Bakersfield and Clovis powers like Stockdale, Clovis West Buchanan and Frontier.
But for the smaller schools, Saturday was a day to highlight, and some athletes made the most of it.
Ridgeview senior Katie Lopes was the only local to win two individual events. She sprinted to victory in the 50 freestyle (25.98) and the 100 freestyle (57.83).
Taft's Tyler Garrison out-dueled league rival Jay Daniel of Shafter in the 100 breaststroke with a personal-best time of 1:01.38.
Garrison said it was the first time he'd defeated Daniel head-to-head in the event in three years.
"I've been waiting for it," Garrison said. "I was screaming, threw a couple fists up in the air. Totally stoked."
Tehachapi also had two swimmers put on a show. Dylan Patton beat teammate Wesley Schultz by eight-hundreths of a second in the 200 individual medley, 1:59.82-1:59.90. Both times were season bests.
"It was really fun to watch -- eight one-hundreths of a second between one another," Tehachapi coach Joey Neptune said. "They've been going at each other all year."
Schultz got his championship a few events later by swimming a 55.16 in the 100 butterfly. Patton was also a narrow second in the 100 backstroke.
Bakersfield Christian's Kara Grant won the girls 100 backstroke in 1:06.24 and also was fifth in the 100 butterfly. Shafter's Jennifer Scales routed the girls 200 freestyle field by nearly two seconds in 2:07.99.
