San Marcos swimmer Nolan Clark produced some huge performances at the CIF-SS Division 1 Championships, breaking four school records, placing fifth in two individual events and posting two automatic qualifying times for the State Championships on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.
Clark swam 49.53 to place fifth in the 100 butterfly and set a new mark for San Marcos. He also rewrote the record in the 100 backstroke with a fifth-place time of 50.61.
Clark was part of school-record 4×100 free relay team. Christian Yonker, Will Stuart, Cole Racich and Clark placed 11th with a time of 3:08.19. The mark is a automatic time of the state championships next week in Clovis.
Clark also competed on the 200 medley relay team with Duncan Hunt, Stuart and Yonker. They went 1:34.86 and placed 13th overall.
In other boys events, the team of Hunt, Yonker, Racich and Stuart broke the school record in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:26.69; Stuart placed 16th in 100 breaststroke in 57.43; Racich was 16th in the 100 freestyle (46.98) and Jacob Angel swam a PR of 4:46.04 in the 500 free prelims and finished 23rd.
Eleanor Grube was a busy swimmer for the San Marcos girls. She placed ninth in the 50 free (24.27), was 17th in the 100 freestyle (53.06) and was on two relay teams. She joined Shea Estabrook, Sophie Yonker and Kalista Hall on a fourth-place 200 free relay (automatic state time of 1:36.54) and swam with Sophia Hall, Kalista Hall and Yonker on an 11th-place 4×100 relay (state-bonus time of 3:34.93).
Grube earned the most individual points for San Marcos at the CIF Championships.
Sophia Hall swam in the 50 freestyle and placed 13th in 24.15.
The San Marcos girls placed 16th and boys 13th in what is considered the fastest high school meet in the country. The Royals had a total of 16 qualifiers, which is their biggest contingent in recent years, according to coach Chuckie Roth.
“Super proud of the way we swam,” said Roth. “I’m happy for all my athletes and they deserve all the success that they’re having. We will find out on Sunday who qualifies for the state championship in Fresno next Friday and Saturday.”
