RANCHO PENASQUITOS, May 19, 2001 -- The Fallbrook High School boys swim team concluded a season beyond expectation by placing second in the San Diego Section Division I championship meet, held May 19 at the Mt. Carmel High School pool.

The Warriors finished 22 points behind team champion Valhalla in the meet, which went down to the last event with Fallbrook having a mathematical chance to capture the title.

"I had no idea coming into the meet where we would finish. I thought we'd place high but with the quality of talent in the meet, I was counting on our depth (to pull us through)," explained Warrior coach Bill Richardson.

Fallbrook's swimmers had to wait until the sixth event of the day -- the 100-yard freestyle -- before finally winning an event, and it would be one of only two events they would win in the 11-event finals (excluding the diving competition, which was held the previous day at Mesa College). The Warriors finished the meet with two first-, five second-, one third- and two fourth-place finishes in the seven championship heat events in which they either had individual or team qualifiers.

Still, Fallbrook had an opportunity to seize victory, and the Division I banner in the process, with a win in the final event of the section's large school meet: the 400 freestyle relay. However, in order to achieve that, the meet-leading Norsemen had to suffer disqualification while the Warriors, seeded second To Valhalla in the event, had to pull through with a high team placement.

As fate would have it, the battle between the two teams, swimming in adjacent lanes, went stroke for stroke and turn for turn between the four participating swimmers for each team. The lead would alternately change on each turn and then change again in mid-pool in what was easily the most exciting and hotly contested event of the day.

Finally, with just 25 yards to go, Valhalla senior Will McLaughlin opened up enough of a lead to relegate Fallbrook's anchor leg swimmer, senior Danny Ender, and the Warriors to a runner-up finish in both the event and the final team standings. McLaughlin hit the electronic touch pad in 3:11.39 while Ender (the meet's 100 freestyle champion) touched in 3:12.40. The teams had entered the event separated by just 0.37 seconds from times posted in the divisional prelim meet just two days earlier. The finals times for both teams were school records.

The final team score favored the Norsemen with 199 points to Fallbrook's 177 as Valhalla successfully defended its Division I title.

"If we did win, it was going to be very, very close," explained Norseman program director Vicki Hoffman-Webster. "Last year, we won by 90 points. That's a significant number. If we were going to win it this year, it was going to be immensely close."

Until Fallbrook broke through with its second win of the meet in the 200 free relay, the Warrior coaching staff had watched from poolside as Valhalla swimmers had racked up four first- and one second-place swims in the five events in which they had individuals entered. In that same span, Fallbrook swimmers had recorded one first, four seconds and one third.

Junior Chris Vedenoff led off the Warriors meet-champion 200 free relay by posting a 50-split time of 22.43. Senior Alec Harris followed in 22.01 to hand the reins to fellow classmate David Brown, who swam a 22.27 leg. Ender's anchor leg swim produced a blistering 21.15 time that eclipsed the 21.59 he had swum in posting a second-place finish in the 50 free sprint earlier in the day. The foursome's final 1:27.86 time earned them consideration All-American status as well as a school record in the event. Torrey Pines was second in the event in 1:28.53.

In the meet concluding 400 free relay, Ender turned in a 100-split time of 46.96 while Vedenoff recorded a 48.36 100-split. The relay split-time bettered Ender's winning time of 47.50 in the 100 free, an event in which he successfully defended his 2000 title.

Ender, whose denuded head gave proper meaning to the term "shaved and tapered," finished second in the 50 free with a school record clocking of 21.59. It took a new section record of 20.90 turned in by Torrey Pines junior Ryan Karlson, the event's defending champion, to beat Ender, who earned consideration All-American status with his school record time.

Ender and Vedenoff swept the top two place-finishes in the 100 free with Ender's winning 27.50 leading Vedenoff's 48.18 as both swimmers finished with season best marks. Ender dropped his time nearly a full second in the event from the prelims but came up short against his winning 47.18 time of a year ago. Vedenoff went nearly a half-second faster in the finals.

Vedenoff was right behind Ender in the 50 free, placing third in a season best 22.08.

Brown also produced a school record for the Warriors in the meet with his second-place consideration All-American time of 1:42.80 in the 200 free. He shaved off nearly six seconds to record a runner-up finish in the 500 free in 4:43.95.

Harris was fourth in both the 200 free (1:46.22) and 100 backstroke (a season best 1:03.03).

The Warriors depth chart also included Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Cleveland, Tim Irwin and Jay Hartzell, who combined as a team to place 11^th overall (fifth in the consolation championship heat) in the meet-opening 200 medley relay.

Fallbrook junior Brent Craig finished fourth in the boys diving competition. This year's Avocado League champion in the event, Craig scored an 11-dive total of 319.40 points to place just ahead of Mt. Carmel's Brandon Vara, whose 318.10 points placed him a narrow fifth among the 17 competing divers. Poway sophomore Dustin Watson repeated his division championship title with a meet-best 449.50 points, followed by Rancho Buena Vista junior Charlie Slender (442.80) and Valhalla senior Craig Rychel (331.05).

Fallbrook placed 10th in the girls Division I finals in which Torrey Pines and Mt. Carmel dominated with first- and second-place team finishes, respectively. The Lady Warriors captured the consolation title in the 200 medley relay with Katie and Kristine Croswell, Ashley Rodriguez and Kristine Fast contributing all 50-yard specialty legs. The team of Rodriguez, Breezy Rice, Kristin Leon and Bryn Kuech placed eighth overall in the 400 free relay while the unit of Fast, Rice, Ashley Lieber and Kuech finished 10th overall in the 200 free relay.

On an individual basis for the Fallbrook girls team, junior Katie Croswell was ninth in the 100 backstroke while Rice engineered a 10th place showing in the 200 free and Rodriguez was 10th in the 50 free. Kristine Croswell, a freshman, was 12th in the 100 breaststroke. Sophomores Kelly Gildea and Karly Oakly were 11th and 12th, respectively, in the girls diving competition.