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Santa Margarita’s girls and boys swimming teams didn’t need to be full-strength, or flawless, to comfortably defend their titles at the CIF State Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday in Fresno.
That’s how dominant the Eagles’ program has become.
Santa Margarita’s girls captured their fifth consecutive state crown in the eight-year meet by scoring 210 points at Clovis West High.
They swept the freestyles relays en route to outdistancing runner-up Carondelet by 52 points despite racing without standout Teagan O’Dell. The junior decided to focus on training for the Olympic Trials next month in Indianapolis instead of attending the meet.
The Eagles boys scored a meet-record 248 points to outdistance runner-up Northwood by 51.5 points and third place Loyola by 59. They didn’t hold all their seedings entering the meet but dropped times is placing second in all three relays.
“Great way to end the season,” Santa Margarita co-coach Rich Blanc said.
Northwood’s boys lowered their Orange County record in the 400-yard freestyle relay and Liberty Christian freshman Bianca Nwaizu won the girls breaststroke in other highlights.
Santa Margarita, however, left its mark on the team competition.
Junior Gracyn Aquino paced the Santa Margarita girls by touching second in the 50 free (22.76) and fourth in the 100 free (50.19).
She also anchored the winning 400 free relay to a time of 3:22.80. She teamed with Victoria Mori, Audrey Lee and Ariel Lin to help the Eagles win the event for the fifth straight year.
Santa Margarita showed its depth in the 200 free relay. The team of Mori, Morgan Hoppe, Lin and anchor Chloe Stinson held off San Ramon Valley by 12 one-hundredths of a second to touch first in 1:33.35.
It was Santa Margarita’s sixth consecutive state title in the sprint relay.
The Eagles’ boys didn’t crown an individual champion but sent several swimmers to finals. Senior Daniel Verdolaga placed second in the butterfly (47.23) and senior Hunter Cehelnik took third in the 100 free (44.24).
The Northwood and Santa Margarita boys raced under the county record in the 400 free relay for the second consecutive meet. And like the CIF-SS Division 1 finals, the Timberwolves won the race in a record time.
Northwood’s team of Derek Hitchens (44.53), Elson Lee (45.50), Will Chen (44.01) and anchor Andrew Maksymowski (44.00) clocked a county-record 2:58.04.
Santa Margarita’s squad of Cehelnik (44.36), Verdolaga (44,54), Adam Lee (45.87) and Ramon Jiang (43.91) combined for a 2:58.68 to join Northwood as the only county relays to break 2:59.
Nwaizu was the only county swimmer to win a state title. She blazed her the 100 breaststroke in a county-leading 1:00.23, the second-fastest time in county history. O’Dell holds the record with a 59.73 from last season.
With her victory, Nwaizu became the first O.C. girl to win the breaststroke at state since Ella Eastin of Crean Lutheran touched in a then-county record 1:00.33 in 2015.
Maksymowski helped pace the county boys. He finished fourth in the 200 free (1:36.25) and 500 free (4:24.75).
Woodbridge’s Jacob Wang took fifth in the 50 free in 20.48.
On the girls side, Villa Park’s Allison Mann capped a stellar career by placing fifth in the 50 free (23.16) and second in the 100 free (49.81).
Woodbridge senior Zara Masud also finished strong by placing fifth in the 200 free (1:49.58) and butterfly (53.92).