Boys Stroke to 7th at State Swim Meet

Both the girls’ and boys’ junior varsity and varsity swimming squads recently completed perfect league seasons, beating Alhambra, Dougherty Valley, Dublin, Acalanes, Miramonte, and Las Lomas.

In addition, the JV team placed 1st at the JV Pentathlon hosted by Dougherty Valley in late March, and also placed 1st at the annual JV Invitational, defeating Miramonte 1034-1025.

At the Invitational hosted by Miramonte, freshman Jessica Henningsen broke the meet record for the 500 yard freestyle, and junior Daniel Gong broke the record for the 200 yard freestyle.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Henningsen. “I wasn’t even going for the record.”

The JV girls swept the 100 backstroke event, with Zoe Del Rosario, Mia Strong, and Gaby Rego coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively. Freshman Giorgio Alessandria won the 100 backstroke and the 100 breaststroke.

Another season highlight was the varsity team’s championship performance at the Mission Viejo Invitational in mid-April. The girls and the boys followed this up with victories at the DFAL varsity championships on May 5, outscoring 2nd place Miramonte by over 100 points on both sides.

Outstanding swims at the DFAL meet included wins by Lia Campbell (200 and 100 yard freestyle), Cole Stevens (200 IM), Ashleen O’Brien (100 butterfly), Nicky Erickson (100 butterfly), Jolen Griffin (100 freestyle and 100 backstroke), Sophia Cavalli (500 free), and Emily Ward (100 backstroke). The girls’ 400 free relay and the boys’ 200 medley and 400 free relays also took 1st place.

At the NCS meet on May 12, boys’ varsity placed 2nd while girls’ varsity placed 4th. “Most people did really well. Finals were really good. The relays were awesome too,” said O’Brien.

The CIF State Swimming & Diving Championships were held on May 20-21 at Clovis Olympic Swim Complex at Clovis West High School in Clovis. 14 Campolindo varsity swimmers attended: Ashleen O’Brien, Jolen Griffin, Cole Stevens, Lia Campbell, Rachel Hendricks, Paige Hanley, Lauren Etnyre, Sophia Cavalli, Alec Baker, Emily Ward, Kai Nashan, Samuel Ayers, Nicky Erickson, and Audrey Chang.

The boys 200 yard medley relay with Griffin, Stevens, Erickson, and Nashan placed 2nd in the preliminary round. However, Griffin, Stevens, and Erickson couldn’t compete in finals because the Saturday event conflicted with their Senior Ball.

Wheeler, Baker, and Ayers filled in for their teammates, scoring 8th overall. The same lineup took 8th place in the 400 freestyle relay. “It was a great experience to compete at such a high level venue, and even though our relay wasn’t competitive at all at State, we still had a lot of fun and hope for this experience next year,” said Baker.

The girls 200 freestyle relay with O’Brien, Cavalli, Etnyre, and Campbell tied with Miramonte for 7th place in a time of 1:35.76.

Campbell placed 16th overall in the 200 free with a time of 1:52:24, and O’Brien scored 16th in the 100 fly with a final time of 56.81. Griffin and Erickson placed 6th and 13th in the 100 fly, and Stevens placed 4th in the 100 back.

Overall, Campolindo girls varsity placed 21st out of the 74 teams at the state meet, and the varsity boys placed 7th.