Acorns sending eight swimmers, two alternates to May 21-22 CCS
Championships in Santa Clara
SAN JOSE — They had flirted with making the cut for the Central Coast Section Championships all season.
Friday, Live Oak’s 200-yard freestyle relay of Ryan McCombs, Saul Orona, Danny Robinson and Daniel Enriquez was down to its last swim at Mount Hamilton Division Finals, and possibly the season, still needing a push to meet the pesky qualifying standard — one minute, 35.29 seconds — at Gunderson High School.
So, their coach got the whole team behind them.
Lynn Gautschi, an ample motivator alone, recruited every member of Live Oak swimming to voice encouragement face to face.
“A little peer pressure can do wonders,” Gautschi said. “I’ve done everything I can to push these guys, and they’ve gotten this far. They need everyone to get on them. This is it.”
The extra support was reciprocated by Orona’s best heat of the season, a 24.1-second leg that set up thrilling final sprints by Robinson and Enriquez.
Gautschi checked and double-checked their time — 1:34.85 — with officials afterward.
A few thumbs-up later, they were heading to CCS.
“It feels awesome. That was an incredible race,” Orona said. “I’m just glad we didn’t let everyone down. They were coming up to us all day saying, ‘You got this. You can do it.’ We showed we can.”
Enriquez, the anchor, felt like he was going to “pass out” once he touched the wall.
“I just hope we get the same support for CCS,” he said. “It definitely helped.”
The 200-freestyle relay standard marked McCombs’ third qualifying mark this spring — and second of the day. The freshman also added the 200-yard individual medley to his repertoire, which includes the 50-yard freestyle.
McCombs plans to swim all three in the May 21 CCS preliminaries at Santa Clara International Swim Center.
“It’s been a great season for me, definitely more than I expected,” he said. “I’m looking forward the 200 IM mostly. That’s my favorite.”
Already set for CCS Finals in multiple events, Live Oak’s four-person girls contingent of Katie Rick, Michelle Mikaelsson, Rachel Cretcher and Sarah D’Angelo delivered a championship-meet effort Friday, nearly winning three events combined. They opened with a third-place finish third in the 200-yard medley relay (1:56.30) and later took second in the 200-freestyle relay (1:42.54) — less than a second behind the winning foursome from Santa Teresa.
Rick captured the 100-yard breaststroke title for the third consecutive year, edging Mikaelsson by less than a second.
“I heard it was a good race — I couldn’t really tell in the water,” said Mikaelsson, a sophomore. “I definitely want to win it next year.”
Earlier, Rick touched about eight tenths of a second behind Pioneer’s Michelle Berry to take second in the 200 IM.
Cretcher, a junior, clocked the third fastest time (5:30.66) in the 500-yard freestyle.
