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Bonita Vista boys and girls swim to Metro millennium titles

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, May 12, 2001 -- The Mesa League dual meet champion Bonita Vista Barons collectively swam past the South Bay League champion Mar Vista boys and girls teams to claim titles in last Saturday’s combined Metro Conference swimming and diving championships at the Loma Verde Pool.

The Bonita Vista girls racked up a meet-best 673 points to runner-up Mar Vista’s 333.5 points in girls competition while the Barons out-pointed the Mariners 553-299 to win the boys meet.

Hilltop, which finished second to Mar Vista in South Bay League girls dual meet competition, was third with 294 points while the Eastlake boys finished third in the conference finals standings with 290 points. The Sweetwater boys (fourth, 169 points) and Chula Vista girls (fifth, 185 points) were the top Mesa League teams to place in conference scoring after the meet-champion Barons.

Bonita Vista won eight of the 11 girls swimming events at last Saturday’s finals and five of the 11 boys events.

Chula Vista swept the diving championships, which were held the previous day, also at the Loma Verde pool. Advancing to Tuesday’s San Diego Section Division I girls dive prelims and finals at Mesa College was Metro champion Ashley Monzon, who recorded an automatic qualifying mark of 302.40 points for her 11 dives. Alex Soto earned automatic entry in Friday’s Division I boys diving prelims/finals with an 11-dive score of 313.55 points. Competition begins at 3:30 p.m.

Three swimmers won two individual events at last Saturday’s Metro finals, with Bonita Vista’s Paul Hernandez and Eastlake’s Tommy Tong showcasing their talent in the boys meet and Bonita Vista’s Melissa Mattero doubling in the girls meet.

Hernandez, who entered Thursday’s Division I swim prelims at Mt. Carmel High as the Barons’ lone championship-round individual qualifier of a season ago, captured individual titles in the 200-yard individual medley and 100 breaststroke at the Loma Verde meet. Hernandez, who finished second in both events at last year’s conference finals, clocked 2:08.16 to win the 200 IM and 1:04.21 to claim the breast-stroke this season. He finished more than nine seconds ahead of runner-up finisher Victor Acevedo of Sweetwater (2:17.56) in the IM and won the breaststroke event by a two-second margin ahead of teammate Art Reed (1:06.41). Hernandez’ time in the breast-stroke was the ninth best posted between the seven league/ conference finals held around the section May 11-12.

Tong, who won four events (two individual and two relay events) at the conference championships two years ago and captured last year’s 100 butterfly title, swam to victories last Saturday in both the fly (59.08) and 100 backstroke (59.01) while helping both the Titan 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams post victories to earn the Metro’s Male Swimmer of he Year award. Tong won a tight three-way dual for the fly title by out-touching Bonita Vista’s Josh Hernandez (59.68) and Eastlake teammate Jonathan Alvarez (1:00.12). Tong’s margin of victory was even slimmer — 0.04 seconds — in the backstroke event as he out-touched Baron freshman Jesse Gallegos (59.05).

Mattero earned honors as the Metro girls’ distance queen by winning the 200 and 500 individual freestyle events while swimming legs on Bonita Vista’s victorious 200 and 400 freestyle relay units. A sophomore, Mattero clocked 2:10.24 to win the 200 free and 5:33.99 to capture the 500 free. She finished more than five seconds ahead of teammate Lara Balistreri (2:15.77) in the shorter distance and won the longer distance by nearly a four-second margin ahead of teammate Kim Linder (5:37.35).

Marissa Loya (1:01.54, 100 free), Erika Urrutia (1:06.77, 100 back) and Danielle Torre (1:14.97, 100 breast) all captured individual titles for the Baron girls, who swept all three relay events. Torre repeated her title of a season ago. Hilltop’s Michelle Romero (2:27.95, 200 IM) and Jessica Street (26.77, 50 free) and Sweetwater’s Emily Robles (1:07.61, 100 fly) rounded out this year’s Metro individual girls champions.

The IM race was easily the most hotly contested in the girls field, with Romero edging Torre (2:27.96) by just .01 second at the touchpad. The 100 fly race also was a thriller with Robles successfully turning back challenges by Chula Vista’s Rosie Carreras (1:09.68) and Bonita Vista’s Marianne Paradowski (1:09.80).

Both the 100 free and 100 back developed into exceedingly close races to the finish between teammates, with the Barons’ Loya out-dueling Julianne Ball (1:01.64) by 0.1 second and Urrutia out-touching Malinda Groom (1:06.84) by a 0.07-second margin.

Street, only a freshman, edged Bonita Vista’s Linder by 0.05 seconds to win the girls 50 sprint title in yet another dramatic finish.

Hilltop's Romero, who also finished third in the 500 free, was named the conference’s female swimmer of the year, based on regular season performance.

Both the 50 and 100 boys sprint titles came down to duels involving Eastlake sophomore Nik Clair-Williams and Bonita Vista senior Mike Dinsmore. Clair-Williams successfully defended his 50 free title of a year ago by posting a winning 22.37 time to Dinsmore’s 23.00 clocking. Dinsmore set a new personal record at 49.68 by finishing ahead of his Titan rival (50.54) in the 100 free. Dinsmore shaved almost one second off his runner-up finish of 50.40 in the event last year. His 100 time was the sixth best recorded at last weekend’s section league/conference prelims.

The boys 500 free surprisingly turned into a three-way dash for the touchpads between Marian Catholic’s Roberto Lopez (4:58.38), Montgomery’s Jose Serratos (4:59.27) and Bonita Vista’s Bram Hanono (5:02.74). Serratos was looking to double after winning the 200 free (1:49.50).

Bonita Vista’s boys captured the meet-concluding 400 free relay (3:28.21) after finishing second to Eastlake in the 200 free relay.

South Bay League champion Mar Vista was led in the con-ference finals by Maritza Johnson, who was fourth in the girls 100 breaststroke (1:20.45) and Juan Vera’s third-place finish in the breaststroke (1:10.50) and sixth-place finish in the IM (2:30.87).

This year’s league title was the first ever won by a Mariner girls squad and the third for a Mar Vista boys team, adding to back-to-back conference titles captured in 1998 and 1999.

Other championship heat qualifiers for the Mariners included Rebeca Valadez, who was was fifth in both the 200 free (2:18.28) and 500 free (6:05.85), and Erika Ramos, who placed fifth in the 100 free (1:05.53) and sixth in 100 back (1:13.38). The Mar Vista girls team had three championship finalists in the 100 breast. Joining Johnson in the event was Shelli Homer (sixth, 1:23.69) and Allison Shoemaker (eighth, 1:24.75). Stephanie Riley (200 free, 2:21.90), Amy Forrest (100 fly, 1:18.02) and Jennifer Hobdell (100 back, 1:17.40) all won consolation titles.

Leading the Mariner boys were Juan Vera, who finished third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:10.00 and sixth in the 200 IM in 2:28.61; Joe Czerwiec, who swam to a fourth-place finish in the100 fly (1:04.88) while winning the consolation 200 free title in 2:07.98; Kyle Collins, who was sixth in the 50 free (24.34); Steven Osuna took seventh-place finishes in both the 50 free (24.63) and 100 free (55.80) and Mike Goggin, who placed seventh in the 200 free (2:05.62) and won the consolation title in the 100 free (55.66). Ricky Ellison won the 100 fly consolation title in 1:13.02.

In relay events, the Mar Vista girls finished third in the 200 free and 200 medley relays while the Mariner boys were third in both the 200 and 400 free relays.

But depth otherwise ruled the waves for the meet-champion Barons. Bonita Vista logged four of the top five sprint times in both the boys 50 and 100 free and four of the top six times in both the boys 200 and 500 free and girls 50 and 200 free.

Notepad

Eastlake’s boys were paced by Clair-Williams with first and second touches in the 50 and 100 free and by Alvarez with third-place finishes in the 200 IM and 100 fly. Sweetwater’s Acevedo was second in the IM and third in the fly. Marian’s Lopez was also third in the 200 free. Sweetwater, which finished 3-1 in Mesa League dual meets, took second place in the boys 400 free relay (3:50.17).