The San Diego Section unveiled a new venue for this year’s swimming and diving championships last weekend in a move from Granite Hills High School over the past several years.
The switch to Southwestern College didn’t seem to matter as East County participants continued to grab the spotlight.
The Granite Hills showcase tandem of sophomore Ella Morgan and senior Austin Felio each won two individual gold medals while Grossmont sophomore Aramis Willett and Steele Canyon sophomore Kasey Gray also emerged out of the water with first-place medals.
Add to that a gold medal won by El Capitan senior Benjamin Brookshire in the Division II boys diving competition.
Golden moments
Both Morgan and Felio had to push hard to touch first in the 200 freestyle. Morgan (1:49.15) took the lead in the final 10 yards to edge Torrey Pines senior Aya Ferguson (1:49.30) while Felio (1:39.64) took the lead in the final 25 yards from Torrey Pines sophomore Kai Painter (1:39.92).
Felio won by 0.28 seconds while Morgan by an even closer 0.15 second margin in another bang-bang finish.Ferguson was the defending champion.
Both Morgan and Felio’s winning times were automatic state qualifying marks.
In the 500 distance, Morgan repeated as division champion with a time of 5:00.32 — a comfortable margin over runner-up Bella Pitts (5:08.23), a junior from Steele Canyon. Felio (4:30.93) expanded that winning margin to 10 seconds over Westview junior Braeden Renken (4:40.83).
Felio’s time met the automatic state qualifying standard while Morgan’s time met the state-qualifying consideration standard.
The state championship meet is May 14-16 in Clovis.
Both swimmers remain high schievers. Felio met the All-American automatic standard of 1:48.81 in the 200 freestyle and the consideration standard of 4:33.10 in the 500 freestyle. Morgan met the All-American consideration time of 1:50.65 in the 200 freestyle.
Morgan and Felio both competed in two relay events for Granite Hills, placing third in the boys 4×40 event and fifth in both the boys and girls 4×100 events.
Pitts also competed in the 200 freestyle, placing fourth in 1:53.70.
Willett repeated as the Division I butterfly champion in 47.58, besting last year’s winning time of 48.32 as a freshman. Canyon Crest Academy senior Darmen Yessengeldy finished runner-up this year in 49.82 as Willett easily made the automatic state qualifying cut of 49.54 and the automatic All-American cut of 48.38.
The Foothiller swimmer also placed third in the 200 freestyle in a state consideration time of1:40.49 and swam a leg on Grossmont’s third place 400 freestyle relay team (a state consideration 3:12.49).
Gray also easily dipped under the automatic state qualifying time of 1:04.24 in out-touching the field in 1:03.71 — well ahead of Carlsbad sophomore Shelby Evans (1:05.26) in second place.
Evans won last year’s title in 1:03.41.
Gray has already met the All-American consideration time of 1:03.85 in the event.
The Lady Cougar swimmer, who qualified for last year’s state meet in the 100 backstroke, opened the meet with a runner-up finish in the girls 200 individual medley in 2:04.43 (state consideration).
Brookshire, who is in his third year on the dive board, moved up from last year’s third place finish with the top score of 230.15 points this year to qualify for the upcoming state meet.
He ranked second overall among the combined field of 20 male divers.“I practiced at SDSU with the SDSU dive coach over the fall and winter, it helped improve my form,” he said.
Mission Hills’ Isaac Peralta won this year’s Division 1 title with 257.25 points.
Other top performances by East County swimmers in this year’s finals were turned in by Helix junior Trinity Bush (second in 52.61 in the Division I girls 100 freestyle), Christian junior Logan Mullen (second in 46.11 in the Division II boys 100 freestyle and and third in 21.27 in the boys 50 freestyle, both state consideration times), Valhalla freshman Emma Mohr (second in the Division II girls 500 freestyle in 4:59.75 and fourth in the 200 freestyle in 1:52.77, both state consideration times) and El Capitan junior Sonja Allen (third in the Division II girls 100 butterfly in 59.41).
Grossmont Hills League boys champion Helix posted a fifth- place team finish in the Division I standings ahead of sixth place Grossmont and seventh place Granite Hills. Helix and Steele Canyon placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Division I girls standings ahead of regular season league champion Granite Hills in eighth place.
Valhalla finished eighth in the Division II girls standings.
“We had a really great showing from our core group of swimmers,” VHS coach Steena Stagg said. “Emma Mohr exceled and showed the her versatility is strong. We can’t wait to see what she can do the next four years. Our seniors got to close out their careers with excellent swims. We had almost everyone get PRs (personal records) in both individual and relay events.”
VHS senior Cody Smith set PRs in winning consolation heats in the boys 100 backstroke (55.88) and 500 freestyle (4:54.08).
