SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Swimming

South Bay League 2005 Championship Meet

Second-year Otay Ranch swamps favorites for title

By Phillip Brents

Posted May 14, 2005

When the team scores of this year’s South Bay League championship swim meet were announced, Otay Ranch girls coach Ernie Medina had to take off his hat and salute his team after the second-year Mustangs, competing without a senior class, upset pre-meet favorites Mar Vista and Hilltop to claim the girls team title at the 2005 league finals.

"It’s hard to improve in every league meet. But we did," Medina told his team in an especially satisfying team meeting after the May 14 meet at the Loma Verde pool.

Otay Ranch’s girls team finished third in the regular season team standings behind dual meet champion Mar Vista and runner-up Hilltop. The high-achieving Mustangs out-pointed both the Mariners and Lancers by what turned out to be a sizable margin at the league finals. Otay Ranch topped the chart with 525 points, followed by Mar Vista (second) with 498 points and Hilltop (third) with 451 points.

Medina cited a number of factors that contributed to the Mustangs’ championship title, all of which combined to set off a domino effect.

"I figured whoever would win it, it would be a 14-point spread. What helped us was that every kid had a goal to place higher in their event from the prelims. Our divers did very well. We took a second and a fourth. We won two relays, which was unexpected. We were seeded third in both relays. There were two other things: we were prepared for this meet and we believed that we could get this done," he said.

The Mustangs were led on the girls side by Elise Dayrit and Christina Allison, each of whom captured an individual championship while also swimming legs on a first-place relay team.

Allison finished the day with three first-place medals after winning the 100-yard breaststroke and swimming legs on Otay Ranch’s victorious 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay units.

Dayrit, who was the Mustangs’ lone CIF qualifier last year, won the 200 individual medley as well as swimming a leg on the team’s championship 200 relay squad.

The Mustangs’ 200 medley relay team also included Kim Phillips (backstroke), Roxie Magee (butterfly) and Cindy Velasquez (freestyle). Joining Allison and Dayrit on the 200 freestyle relay team were Roni Coffer and Shantel Seoane.

Dayrit (200 IM), Seoane (butterfly) and Allison (breaststroke) all posted qualifying times for next week's San Diego Section Division II prelim meet at Rancho Bernardo High School. The CIF consolation and championship finals were scheduled May 21 at the same site.

The Mustangs finished third in the boys league finals team standings with 387 points behind first-place (and regular season champion) Mar Vista with 536 points and second-place Hilltop with 476 points.

Chris Bronson won the 500 freestyle event to highlight the boys meet for Otay Ranch. The 200 and 400 relay teams both notched CIF consideration times while Jonathan Magana swam to a consideration time in the 100 butterfly.

Overall, it was a record-setting year for both the boys and girls teams, according to the team’s coaching staff.

"Both the boys and girls teams shattered every school record that we had last year," Medina said. "We went from a team of about 19 to 70. We’re strong as a whole program. We have a three- or four-year goal to win a championship and score at CIF. We hope this can transfer to our water polo program, which we think it will. As a program, we’re pushing for a pool in the Otay Ranch area."