On Thursday afternoon, the Dons Varsity swim team took a bus to Campolindo High School for the Diablo Athletic League Championship Swim Meet. Swimmers from all 13 DAL schools were there to compete in this season-ending meet! Yesterday was the preliminary races, with the top 24 qualifying for the A/B/C finals on Saturday morning.
The 200 Medley Relays started off strong – with the girls teams finishing 3rd and 7th overall. The A team of Taryn Veronda, Anna Motes, Kendall Lee and Liv Hoppe swam an NCS Automatic time of 1:50.78, nearly two seconds off the cutoff! The B team of Brooklyn Plomp, Audrey Martin, Tess Veronda and Adelyn Horciza went 1:53.82 – merely 1.2 seconds off the NCS Automatic time. While the top 8 relays qualify for the finals on Saturday, sadly only one team per school is allowed to compete! The Boys teams both swam NCS Consideration times with the A team of Mason Schlehr, Will Dreyer, Hans Ramirez and Toby Brock-Utne going 1:45.87 and the B team of Will Paulsen, Jayden Hwang, Tony Yamamoto and Tyler Gerhardt going 1:52.19 (Cons cutoff 1:52.99)!
In the 200 Free, Ella Del Rosario finished 7th overall, missing the NCS Automatic cutoff by 0.05 seconds! She will have another chance at an NCS time on Saturday morning in the A final. Olivia Whipple, Sophia Schwartz (dropped 2 sec!), Brooke Rardin and Finley Graff finished 19th, 20th, 21st and 23rd respectively, qualifying for the C final on Saturday. Placing JUST out of the finals was Kate Roberts and Siena La Rotonda, who finished 25th and 26th with about a second improvement each. For the boys, Parker Etnyre finished 9th to qualify for the B final on Saturday. Cale Hanson and Andrew Tanimura qualified for the C final, finishing 19th and 24th. Frosh Braden Dunton dropped 3 seconds in his 27th place finish – no doubt we will see him in a final next year!
In the 200 IM, Taryn Veronda finished 5th, dropping two seconds with a 2:13.27, qualifying for the A final on Saturday. Anna Motes finished 12th, qualifying for the B final. Levand Koopah finished just out of the finals, in 25th. Mason Schlehr finished 12th for the boys, qualifying for the B final with a huge 5.73 second pop in his time! Jayden Hwang finished just out of the finals in 26th.
In the 50 Free, Sophie Hendrickson and Liv Hoppe finished 23rd and 24th to qualify for the C final on Saturday! For the boys, Alex Butler shaved 0.02 sec off his time, placing 14th and qualifying for the B final on Saturday. He is only 0.05 off an NCS Consideration time! In the 100 Fly, Kendall Lee improved her NCS Consideration time and finished 13th to qualify for the B final on Saturday.
Next up – 100 Free! For the girls, Sadie Suppiger finished 3rd overall with a 52.33, merely 0.25 sec off an NCS Automatic time! She will swim in the A final on Saturday. Ella Del Rosario shaved 0.3 off her time, finishing 9th, and will swim in the B final with Brooklyn Plomp, who finished 15th with a 1.3 second improvement. Sophomore Audrey Martin and Frosh Sophia Schwartz went 1-2 in their heat, with 2.63 and 1.74 second improvements – both going under 1 minute for the first time! Juliet McIlwaim also broke 1 minute with a 1.12 second time pop! For the boys, Parker Etnyre finished 2nd overall, improving his NCS Automatic time by 0.13 seconds. He will swim the A final on Saturday. Alex Butler finished 26th with a 0.01 improvement – he’s now just 0.62 sec off an NCS Consideration time! Hans Ramirez dropped 0.75 seconds, Tony Yamamoto dropped 1.74 seconds, and Jace Carter won his heat (from Lane 1!) with a huge pop of 3.03 seconds!
In the 500 Free, Olivia Whipple and Brooke Rardin qualified for the C final on Saturday, finishing 18th and 21st respectively. Andrew Tanimura, Cale Hanson and Braden Dunton all qualified for the C final on Saturday, finishing 19th, 22nd and 23rd in the boys race.
The 200 Free Relays did well – the Girls A team of Liv Hoppe, Ella Del Rosario, Adelyn Horciza and Sadie Suppiger finished 3rd overall, with an NCS Automatic time of 1:42.25! The B team of Ellie Budke, Anna Motes, Sophie Hendrickson and Jess Gerhardt finished 12th with an NCS Cons time of 1:48.04. The C team of Juliet McIlwain, Nina Bundy, Siena La Rotonda and Sadie Hendrickson finished 15th with an NCS Cons time of 1:50.00! The Boys A team of Parker Etnyre, Will Dreyer, Alex Butler and Cale Hanson finished 11th with an NCS Cons time of 1:35.22. The B team of Toby Brock-Utne, Tony Yamamoto, Andrew Tanimura and Tyler Gerhardt finished 15th with an NCS Cons time of 1:36.92.
In the 100 Back, Sadie Suppiger finished 2nd overall with a 57.96 – a 1.24 second improvement and an NCS Automatic time! Taryn Veronda was 4th with a 59.43 – 0.73 off the NCS Auto cutoff. Brooklyn Plomp finished 5th – the A final will be stacked with Dons on Saturday morning! Kendall Lee qualified for the C final, finishing 19th. For the boys, Mason Schlehr swam a 58.57 to qualify 12th – he will swim in the B final on Saturday!
In the 100 Breast, Frosh Anna Motes earned her first NCS Automatic time of 1:07.13. This moves her to #5 on the Top 10 All-Time AHS list! She finished 7th overall and will swim in the A final on Saturday. Audrey Martin finished 11th overall, and will swim in the B final on Saturday. For the boys, Will Dreyer finished 23rd overall, and will swim in the C final on Saturday. Jayden Hwang finished just out of the finals in 25th place.
In the final events of the evening, the 400 Free Relays, the girls A team of Brooklyn Plomp, Ella Del Rosario, Sadie Suppiger and Taryn Veronda finished 4th overall with a time of 3:41.60 – more than 5 seconds UNDER the NCS Automatic cutoff! The boys A team of Parker Etnyre, Cale Hanson, Alex Butler and Hans Ramirez finished 8th overall with a time of 3:24.61 – a solid NCS Consideration time. Both teams will swim in the A final on Saturday morning.
An exciting afternoon evening of swimming for the Dons! Stay tuned for the finals results coming Saturday morning, 4/27! GO DONS!
