It turns out that even a half dozen or so disqualifications
couldn
’t derail the Live Oak High swimming locomotive.
It turns out that even a half dozen or so disqualifications couldn’t derail the Live Oak High swimming locomotive.
Despite a rash of controversial scratches, the Acorn boys and girls swim teams cruised to clear victories at the Tri-County Athletic League Swimming Championships at Live Oak High on Saturday.
Live Oak’s boys team outpaced second-place Hollister-San Benito 353-264, while the Acorn girls team beat the Haybaler girls 316.5 to 256.
Salinas was third and Gilroy was fourth in both the boys and girls competition.
It made a clean sweep for the Live Oak swim program, which rebounded this season after a few down years to re-establish its dominance by finishing undefeated in TCAL dual meets heading into the league finals.
“It’s nice to see it come back,” Live Oak coach Mack Haines said. “When we didn’t have a pool, there was a while there where I had the feeling it wouldn’t.”
Live Oak finished with 16 victories out of 22 total events between the boys and girls teams.
Leading the way were seniors David Dunn ( first in the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly, along with the winning 400 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay teams) and Susan Suchomel (first in the 100 butterfly, second in the 100 breaststroke, and first in the 400 freestyle relay), sophomores Justin Short (first in the 200 freestyle, the 500 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay) and Laura Melroy (first in the 200 freestyle, the 500 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay), and freshman Laura Shope (first in the 50 freestyle, the 100 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay).
Other winners for Live Oak included:
- Sophomore Ronni Gautschi (200 individual medley).
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Senior Travis Aviles (100 freestyle).
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Freshman Cameron Peachy (100 backstroke).
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The Acorn boys 200 medley relay (Peachy, junior Ryan Gautschi, sophomore Shea Coleman and junior Dennis Lowe).
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The boys 200 freestyle relay (Dunn, Aviles, Gautschi and Coleman).
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The boys 400 freestyle relay (Dunn, Short, Aviles and Peachy).
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And, the girls 400 freestyle relay (Suchomel, Melroy, Shope and Gaustchi).
Other top performances included Aviles and Coleman finishing second and third, repectively, in the 50 freestyle, Coleman’s third-place finish in the 100 freestyle, freshman Kyle Fast’s third-place finish in the 500 freestyle, Ronni Gautschi’s second-place finish in the 100 backstroke (in a CCS qualifying time), sophomore Amy Marshall’s third-place finish in the 200 individual medley.
One of the only disappointments of the meet was the number of disqualifications, of which Live Oak had eight.
Especially victimized by the disputed DQs were Ryan Gautschi, who was taken out of both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke (which he would have won), and the girls 200 freestyle relay team, which also was on pace to victory.
Live Oak now moves on to compete in the Central Coast Section Swimming Championships at the Santa Clara Swim Center on Friday and Saturday.
