SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Prep Profile

Catching that championship feeling

Bonita Vista, Eastlake freshmen score big in prep finals

By Phillip Brents
Posted May 27, 2003

Otay Ranch residents Chris Sanchez and Ryan Trias had the opportunity to get caught up in all the excitement associated with post-season competition in high school sports and, despite both being just freshmen, had the opportunity to finish as champions.

An accomplished club swimmer with the South Bay Aquatics swim team, Sanchez captured the 200-yard freestyle distance while competing for Bonita Vista High School in the Metro Conference swimming championship meet May 17 at the Loma Verde pool in Chula Vista. He also finished second in the 100-yard backstroke event.

Trias won this year’s Mesa League boys tennis doubles championship with partner Jason Manalac while competing for Eastlake High School.

Sanchez’s fast times in the Metro finals — 1:48.62 in the 200 freestyle and 56.57 in the backstroke — won a bet with Barons coach Steve Wiggs, who was sporting a shaved head a week later at the San Diego Section Division I championship meet. Wiggs had promised to relieve himself of his head hair if Sanchez clocked in the 1:48 range.

The freshman standout entered the league prelim meet with top entry times of 1:50.96 in the 200 freestyle and 56.88 in the backstroke and emerged with the second-fastest qualifying time in the 200 freestyle behind Sweetwater sophomore Tony Arroyo and the fastest qualifying time in the backstroke ahead of Eastlake senior star Nik Clair-Williams.

All Sanchez did was obliterate his entry times in both events, besting Arroyo (1:52.38) in the 200 free and shaving almost four seconds off his time in the backstroke event.

“He wasn’t shaved or tapered. I didn’t think he’d break it,” Wiggs said. “I didn’t think he’d drop three seconds.”

The backstroke race was not decided until the last 10 yards when Clair-Williams, who earlier had become a four-time league champion in the 50 freestyle, pulled ahead to hit the touch pad first in 55.40.

“It was very exciting for me to go out and win the first year. It was a great honor. Hopefully I can keep it going for the next three years,” Sanchez said.
But Sanchez’s season was not yet over.

At the ensuing San Diego Section Division I prelim meet the following week, he qualified for the championship heat in both events in the the season-ending Division I finals meet May 24 at Mt. Carmel High School.

Sanchez finished fourth in the backstroke in 55.87 and was sixth in the 200 freestyle in 1:49.76. His best times of the season came in the prelim meet held two days earlier when he clocked 55.81 in the backstroke and 1:48.35 in the 200 freestyle.

“I’m real excited. I wasn’t expecting to get that far,” he said of his CIF finals appearance. “I just went out to have a blast and do the best I could.”

Sanchez was one of three Baron individuals to qualify for the May 24 division finals along with two relay teams. He swam legs on both the 200 medley and 400 freestyle teams.

He combined with teammates Paul Hernandez, Jonathan Harthorn and Chris Lopez to win the consolation championship (seventh place overall) in the 200 medley relay with a season-best time of 1:46.14. The Barons’ 400 freestyle relay team comprised of the same individuals finished sixth in the championship heat race in 3:26.39.

In individual events, Hernandez placed second in both the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke events to conclude his senior season after winning his second consecutive Metro Conference Male Swimmer of the Year award, while Lopez finished sixth in the 100 freestyle and 10th in the 50 freestyle.

While Bonita Vista retained rights to the Mesa League boys tennis team title, Trias helped ensure that the league championship tournament May 22 at Eastlake High School displayed more balance as he combined with teammate Manalac to defeat the Chula Vista tandem of Nicholas Wetherell and Ricardo Guerrero by a score of 6-4, 6-3 to capture this year’s doubles title.

Trias, who will attend the new Otay Ranch High School when it opens its doors in late July, credited teamwork as a defining turning point en route to the Titan duo winning the championship tournament.

“At certain times we thought we were giving up too many points and we adjusted,” he said. “I relied a lot on my partner.”

“It was pretty much staying calm,” said Manalac, a senior, who finished third in last year’s South Bay League finals. “The majority of the points we won were at the net — on the volleys.”

Eastlake finished third in the regular season team standings behind Bonita Vista (13-1) and Chula Vista (12-2).