SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Swimming

2004 Metro Conference championships

Titans get tatse of that championship feeling

By Phillip Brents

Sports editor

Eastlake High swim coach Bryan Monzon was hoping his Titans would finish the season strong. He found out just how strong at this year’s Metro Conference championship meet as the Titans splashed to a meteoric second-place finish in the 11-team field.

Perhaps understandably, Monzon was named the Metro Boys Coach of the Year.

“Knowing what I’ve done in my own swimming career and instilling my philosophy and seeing it produce results like this, it means everything to me,” said Monzon, whose team finished second in both the boys and girls competition to perennial conference power Bonita Vista. “But I give most of the credit to the kids. They worked hard all season long, coming to Saturday practices. It’s a family here and they had fun. I think that’s what made the difference.”

The Titan girls were led by Ashley Perez, who won the girls diving championship ahead of teammate Samantha Womer, and sophomore sensation Dani Kimmel, who successfully returned from a midseason injury to win both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke events at the May 15 championship meet at the Loma Verde pool.

Eastlake also scored what is believed to be a first when it captured the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay with a season-best time of 2:01.52 – nearly three seconds faster than the team’s seed time. Andrea Williamson, Kimmel, Julie Williamson and Taylor Erickson comprised the winning relay.

Bonita Vista, which entered the meet with the top seed time of 2:02.92, touched second in 2:02.02.

Kimmel, who placed second in the 100 breaststroke finals at last year’s San Diego Section Division II championships and won the consolation CIF title in the 50 freestyle, shattered her entry time of 1:20.37 in the breaststroke with her winning time of 1:08.67 at this year’s Metro championships. She timed 25.66 to capture the 50 free title.

Kimmel’s time was nearly six seconds faster than that posted by teammate Andrea Williamson (1:14.60), who placed second in the breaststroke finals. A third Titan swimmer, Robin Sese, placed fourth in the event with a time of 1:19.21.

Kimmel’s entry time in the 50 free was 1.6 seconds faster than that of second-seeded Brittany Estrada of Bonita Vista (the meet’s 500 free champion). The Eastlake swimmer touched 0.39 seconds ahead of Baron freshman Sasha Beltran (26.05), with Bonita Vista’s Jeanette Islas placing third in 26.50 and Estrada finishing fourth in 27.18.

Perez had placed third at last year’s Metro diving finals and had out-pointed Womer, 195.5 to 182.05, in head-to-head six-dive competition during the Titans’ dual meet against Bonita Vista April 29 at Southwestern College. In the 11-dive meet that kicked off this year’s conference finals May 14, Perez tallied 306.30 points for the 11 dives required for entry into CIF competition. She finished 7.5 points ahead of runner-up Womer and 19.2 points ahead of third-place Sofia Murga of Hilltop, who had been hitting spectacular dives throughout the meet.

Mar Vista senior Kim Forrest, who had set an unofficial school record with 193.5 points for six dives during the regular season, had entered the meet as the favorite after finishing second at the previous year’s diving championships with 317.70 points. However, Forrest failed her final dive – a back somersault with a full twist – to finish 24.55 points behind Perez.

Murga finished fifth last year – raising her point total by 54.45 points.

Perez improved 19.85 points in her performance from the 286.45 points she scored last year. Womer, who won the conference diving title as a sophomore, improved 15.8 points from last year’s fourth-place finish.

“I got third place last year. I thought anything above that would be great this year,” Perez said. “I executed my dives better this year. I added a few more dives , one of which helped me – the back one-and-one-half. My coach (Ashley Monzon) pushed me a lot this year.”

The top five placers, in fact, were separated by 42.85 points to constitute one of the most competitive diving finals in recent memory.

“The diving helped us out a lot with the girls scoring,” Monzon said.

On the boys side, freshman sensation Marc Uy captured the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke while sophomore Tom Dziadkowiec produced one of the upsets of the meet by capturing the 100 butterfly event.

Uy entered the championship meet as the top-seeded swimmer in both events he won. He trimmed more than seven seconds off his time in the 200 IM (2:14.72 to 2:07.31) and clocked 0.32 seconds faster in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.84). He scored a come-from-behind win against Mar Vista’s Don Sales in the individual medley event, winning by almost nine seconds with a strong second-half effort. Uy captured the breaststroke title by nearly six seconds over Montgomery’s Pablo Carrillo.

Dziadkowiec, who placed third at last year’s butterfly finals with a 58.99 time, upset Mar Vista’s Sales by 0.19 seconds at the touch pad even though he clocked slightly slower this year (59.09). Dziadkowiec placed sixth in the 200 free finals to match last year’s finish in the event

The Titans also received standout swims from Erickson (second in the girls 200 free and third in the girls 500 free), Andrea Williamson (second, girls 200 IM), Julie Williamson (consolation champion, girls 100 butterfly), Ashley Wojciechowski (consolation champion, girls 100 free), Jessica Germany (fifth, girls 100 backstroke), Jeff Demoss (fourth in the boys 200 free and fourth in the boys 100 free), Juan Ibanez (third in the boys 200 IM and fourth in the boys 100 butterfly), Sam Gottlieb (second in the boys 50 free and fifth in the boys 100 free), Brock Robertson (fifth, boys 50 free), Gavin Fluhart (fourth, boys 100 free), James Hiney (fifth, boys 500 free) and Freddy Uquillas (consolation champion, boys 500 free).

In other relay events, the girls team finished second in the 200 freestyle event while the boys team placed second in both the 200 medley and 400 freestyle events and third in the 200 freestyle.

With a young team hitting the water this season, the best could yet be in the future for the Titans.