SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Swimming

Titans' Kimmel cast as Metro's newest star

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, May 17, 2003 -- The Metro Conference’s newest kid on the block almost had her star season shattered before it had the chance to conclude with proper honors. But perseverance and tenacity allowed Eastlake High freshman Dani Kimmel to collect the Girls Swimmer of the Year award at this year’s conference finals.

Pictured at right: Eastlake coach Bryan Monzon and freshman star Dani Kimmel

She was easy to spot on the deck at Saturday's meet at the Loma Verde pool: she was the only swimmer wearing a cast.

“I fell playing basketball in P.E. class,” said Kimmel, who won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke events to help the Titans post a third-place team finish in the girls meet. “The first thing I thought about was CIF — there goes my season. I didn’t even want to go to the doctor at first. I didn’t want a cast. I was hoping I could get by without a cast. But it hurt so I had to go.”

An eight-year veteran of the sport at the club level, Kimmel started swimming the first day she had the cast on her left forearm and had to draw on her natural talent to compensate for both the extra weight and limitation of movement.

Even though she couldn't pull through the water like before for the 50 freestyle or bend her wrist for the breaststroke, few would have noticed the handicap by her winning times.

Kimmel captured the sprint distance in 25.23 seconds — .15 seconds faster than her prelim time. She clocked 1:08.87 to win the breaststroke ahead of defending Metro champion Danielle Torre of Bonita Vista who turned in a time of 1:13.29.

Both the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke times met the automatic qualifying standards for this year’s San Diego Section Division I prelims — ensuring that her season would, in fact, continue.

While Kimmel’s individual exploits were of special note, recognition must also go to the Bonita Vista swim team as the Barons swept the team championship titles in both the boys and girls competition.

Bonita Vista out-pointed runner-up Mar Vista 585-318 to win the girls meet; the Baron boys topped Mar Vista 370-332 for their title.

Eastlake nosed out Hilltop 233-230 for third place in the girls meet while Hilltop outscored Eastlake 261-212 for third place in the boys team standings.

Bonita Vista graduates 15 seniors from this year’s girls squad but only two from its boys team.

“”I don’t know what’s going to happen next season,” said Barons head coach Steve Wiggs, who earned recognition as the Metro Conference Boys Coach of the Year. “These teams are coming up. More people are getting into swimming in the South Bay. It starts at this meet. The South Bay is getting a lot stronger. We have some quality coaches here.”

Bonita Vista captured championship finishes in 15 events overall, winning nine of 12 girls events and recording first-place finishes in six of 12 boys events.

Multiple event winners included senior Paul Hernandez, who won the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke en route to capture honors as Metro Conference Boys Swimmer of the Year for the second consecutive year, along with girls teammates Alvizia Alexander (200 IM, butterfly) and Katie Leahy (200 freestyle, 100 backstroke).

Alexander and Hernandez repeated their individual championships of a season ago while Leahy — a first-time double event champion — strengthened her hold on the second-best time in school history in the 200 freestyle by clocking 2:04.94.

Kim Linder repeated her championship in the 500 freestyle by timing 5:27.44. The time was the third-best all-time in school history.

The Barons won all three relay events in the girls meet, setting a school record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:47.68 to better the entry time of 1:48.64.

Freshman Chris Sanchez (200 freestyle, 1:48.62) and junior Chris Lopez (100 freestyle, 50.58) joined Hernandez as boys gold medalists for the Barons, who also took titles in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. Sanchez was also second in the backstroke.

Hernandez, who shaved off a remarkable 11 seconds off his entry time in the IM event and knocked off more than five seconds in the breaststroke event in last Saturday’s conference finals, enters Saturday’s Division I championship meet as a contender to win both his specialty events after finishing second in the breaststroke and third in the 200 IM last year.

His times rank among the all-time school leaders.

“I swim in club but club doesn’t compare to the camaraderie and feeling of team that high school does. I’ll be swimming next year at UC-Berkeley. I think high school swimming is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Hernandez said.

Parade of champions
Eastlake senior Nik Clair-Williams entered his name twice in the champions list with victories in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke to highlight the Titans’ fourth-place team finish in the boys meet. Clair-Williams, who will attend UC-Irvine, timed 21.97 to best runner-up Joe Czerwiec of Mar Vista (23.08) in the sprint event while holding off a strong challenge from Bonita Vista freshman Chris Sanchez in the backstroke event to win by a 1.11-second margin with a finals clocking of 55.40. Clair-Williams bested his seed time in the backstroke event by more than 11 seconds.

Pictured at right: Eastlake High's 2003 Metro Conference championship swimmers

Eastlake’s 200 freestyle relay team also swam to victory in the conference finals, timing 1:37.80 to best runner-up Mar Vista (1:38.36). Joining Clair-Williams on the championship relay unit was Max Lopez, Sam Gottlieb and Tom Dziadkowiec.

Marian Catholic’s Roberto Lopez became a three-time Metro champion in the 500 freestyle after turning in a time of 5:14.86 — well below his entry time of 5:25.75. Lopez also won the butterfly, timing 57.28 to top pre-meet favorite Nick Davidson (58.50) of Hilltop. Both of Lopez’ winning marks met the automatic CIF qualifying standard. He was fifth in last year’s Division II finals in the 500 freestyle while winning the consolation title in the butterfly event.

Montogmery’s Felicia Corona rounded out the individual event winnersat last Saturday’s conference finals by timing 55.98 in the girls 100 freestyle. She finished second behind Eastlake’s Kimmel in the 50 freestyle in 25.43.

Metro finals notepad
Sweetwater sophomore Tony Arroyo finished second in the boys 100 and 200 freestyle.
Marian Catholic’s Laurie Leduc posted CIF consideration times in the 50 and 100 freestyle evnets, winning the Metro consolation title in the 50 freestyle and finishing sixth in the 100 freestyle. Crusader teammate Jesus Ibarra also notched a CIF consideration time in the boys 100 butterfly.

Kovar, Aland meet goals as Metro diving champions

Senior diver Brittney Aland rounded Bonita Vista’s parade of champions after finishing runner-up in the conference the past two seasons. She won a narrow battle with Mar Vista junior Kim Forrest, edging the Mariner diver (who finished undefeated in regular season dual meets) by two-tenths of a point — 317.70 to 317.50 — in competition held last Friday, also at the Loma Verde pool.

An accomplished gymnast, Aland passed up competing in the Metro Conference gymnastics finals to participate in the conference diving championship meet held the same day. She was the highest non-North County place-finisher in last year’s Division I finals with a 11th place finish. Her best point total last year was 298 points.

“I think I did pretty well last year. My degree of difficulties were high. This year I learned better board work. My degree of difficulties were as high but I think the board work helped improve my scores,” she said.

Besides competing concurrently in gymnastics, Aland also had to squeeze in practices with Sound Unlimited, the school’s girls performance choir. She dove three times each week in practice over the summer.

“I wasn’t even thinking about placing. My goal was just to break 300 points and qualify for CIF. Even if I didn’t win, I just wanted to qualify for CIF,” she said.
Four divers in the girls meet met the qualifying standard of 250 points.

Eastlake freshman Ashley Perez finished third with an automatic CIF finals score of 286.45 points ahead of teammate Samanta Womer (283.00 points) in fourth place. To demonstrate the depth of this year’s field, Womer finished as last year’s conference champion with 282.80 points.

Hilltop junior Kyle Kovar earned the Metro Conference Boys Diver of the Year award after topping the 11-person field with a career-best 373.40 point total. Chula Vista junior Bryan Flitcraft placed second with a career-best total of 309.20 points, followed by Hilltop sophomore Alan Flores (292.00) in third place and Mar Vista’s Sean Crampton (252.00) in fourth place.

Kovar finished second at last year’s Metro finals before going on to capture the Division II title.

“What I really wanted to do this year was win Metro because the past two years when I came to this meet I fell apart,” said Kovar, who went on to place second at Tuesday’s Division II diving championships at La Jolla High School.
“He put in a lot of effort. It’ pride of ownership,” said Lancer coach John Salts. “He brought (our) dive team together as coach, captain and leader. He’s done an outstanding job.”

CIF notepad
A total of nine Metro divers qualified for this year’s San Diego Section diving championships.

Forrest finished fifth in the girls field behind champion Krysta Chaldekas of Coronado while Hilltop’s Flores and teammate Joe Olivarria were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the boys field.

Grossmont junior Randin Lambrecht, who entered Tuesday’s meet ranked second to Kovar, edged the Hilltop diver by 13.05 points (355.60 to 342.55) to win Tuesday’s competition.

Both of last year’s Division II champions finished as runners-up this season as La Jolla’s Natalie Carrier finished second in the girls dive card with 308.05 points to Chaldekas’ winning total of 357.35 points.

Metro Conference Diving Finals
May 16 at Loma Verde pool

Boys (points): 1. Kyle Kovar (H) 373.40; 2. Bryan Flitcraft (CV) 309.20; 3. Alan Flores (H) 292.00; 4. Sean Crampton (MV) 252.00; 5. Alex Martinez (CV) 248.00; 6. Doug Schulz (BV) 244.85; 7. Joe Olivarria (H) 242.95; 8. Isaac Engrahm (MV) 220.25; 9. Fernando Yates (H) 212.95; 10. Ian Tisdale (CV) 205.60; 11. Dennis Schulz (BV) 199.40.

Girls (points): 1. Brittney Aland (BV) 317.70; 2. Kim Forrest (MV) 317.50; 3. Ashley Perez (EL) 286.45; 4. Samantha Womer (EL) 283.00; 5. Sofia Murga (H) 232.65; 6. Briana Sneddon (H) 192.78; Jasmine Casey (H) 169.95.