Senior Olivia Smith and sophomore Maija Ninness each won two events and swam on a pair winning relay teams to lead the San Marcos girls to its third straight championship at the Channel League Swim Finals on Thursday at Ventura High.
The host Cougars won the boys title with 350 points. San Marcos finished second with 244 followed by Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos in third with 199 and Buena fifth with 152.
The San Marcos girls put on an impressive performance, winning eight events, including all three relays. The Royals scored 414 points followed by Santa Barbara (248), Ventura (240), Dos Pueblos (191) and Buena (106).
“It was a great day to be a Royal,” San Marcos coach Chuckie Roth said. “We had numerous personal bests. I am so proud of our seniors who swam their hearts out. They have laid a great foundation of success for future teams to follow.”
Smith set the tone with a victory in the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:52.45. Freshman Fiona Kuesis came in third in 1:55.65.
Smith later captured the 100 butterfly in 56.85. She also swam on the winning 200 medley relay and anchored the first-place 400 free relay (3:34.28).
The medley relay team of Ninness, Amanda Hayes, Olivia Smith and Paige Hauschild set a school record with a time of 1:46.64.
Ninness also swam on the 400 free relay and won the 200 IM (2:10.86) and 100 back (58.46).
Hauschild proved she is the top sprinter in the league, leading a Royals sweep in the 50 free in 24.16. Piper Smith (25.08) and Arjia Walsh (25.23) were second and third and Abbi Hill (25.25) of Dos Pueblos was fourth.
Hauschild took second in the 100 free (51.19), finishing just behind Ventura’s Alicia Harrison (50.75). Hill was third (54.33).
Amanda Hayes (1:07.36) was second and Kate Coski (1:11.67) third in the 100 breast. Harrison of Ventura won the race in 1:02.15.
In the 500 free, Kuesis (5:08.02) took second behind Ventura’s Brigid McNally (5:06.57) and Cassandra Barkhorn (5:14.96) of Dos Pueblos was third.
San Marcos won the 200 free relay in 1:41.43, with the team of Arjia Walsh, Kuesis, Kate Coski and Piper Smith. Santa Barbara (Kai McGeoy, Kristina Garcia, Lara Kostruba, Lila Roderick) was second in 1:43.85 and Dos Pueblos (Britni Tisdale, Thea Neushul, Clare Grim, Abbi Hill) took third in 1:44.96.
Dylan Elliot and Theo Velikov won events for the Dos Pueblos boys. Elliot used a powerful last lap and overtook Ventura’s Jurgen Covault to win the 200 individual medley in 1:59.97. Covault touched the wall at 2:00.64. Tristan Depew of San Marcos was third (2:01.38).
Velikov took charge in the 200 freestyle and won in 1:40.97. David Peterson of Ventura was second (1:43.37) and Alex Roderick of Santa Barbara came in third (1:44.07).
Santa Barbara took second in the 200 medley relay with the team of Miles Gaitan, Evan Blix, Jacob Panossian and Justyn Barrios. Their time was 1:45.84. Ventura was first in 1:40.22.
In the sprints, Santa Barbara’s Sawyer Rhodes finished second to Jack Burleigh of Buena in the 50 free and second to Ventura’s David Peterson in the 100 free. Burleigh went 21.50 and Rhodes 21.82 in the 50. Rhodes was edged out in the 100, 47.00 to 47.25.
Roderick clocked 53.03 to finish second in the 100 butterfly. Buena’s Konstantin Dieckman won the race in 52.60.
Sean Apsey of San Marcos scored a convincing victory in the 500 free, winning in 4:45.00. Blake Spiller of Santa Barbara was second in 4:53.43, edging out freshman Dylan Apsey of the Royals (4:53.46).
Also for San Marcos, Depew was third in the 100 fly and Patrick Rowley took third in the 100 back.
“As all year has been, it was a really great team effort today,” San Marcos coach Jeff Ashton said. “We only won the one race but we had many guys swim well and placing in both finals and consolation finals.”
In the 400 free relay, San Marcos (Sean Apsey, Tristan Depew, Matt Mills, George Kuesis) finished second behind Ventura with a time of 3:15.83. Ventura went 3:12.93. Santa Barbara (3:16.45) came in third and Dos Pueblos (3:23.36) fourth.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.