Live Oak girls swim team defends TCAL championship; Acorn boys
edged out by ‘Balers
Morgan Hill – From the very beginning, there was no doubt about it. The Live Oak girls are champions.
The Lady Acorns came into the Tri-County Athletic League Swimming Championships on Friday at Live Oak hoping to successfully defend their title. And did they ever.
From winning the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay by more than four seconds to overwhelming the rest of the seven-team field throughout the afternoon, Live Oak ran away with the title in its final league appearance.
“We’re a pretty dominant team usually,” Acorns senior Amy Marshall said. “I think we all came out hard and fast to keep our dominance in the league.”
Live Oak won six of the eight individual events and two of the three relays, amassing 331 points to secure its third straight TCAL championship. Salinas finished a distant second with 221 points, narrowly holding off third-place San Benito (220 points).
In the boys’ competition, Live Oak also jumped to a big lead in striving to defend its title. But San Benito overtook the Acorn boys down the stretch to down its nemesis. The Haybalers, victors over Live Oak in a dual meet earlier this season, won the TCAL championship with 333 points, while the runner-up Acorns scored 304 points.
Acorns girls coach Courtney Hernandez knew her team was well-positioned for the team title.
“We were pretty confident going into it,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t figure out all the points, but I knew we’d dominate in a few events.”
After Ronni Gautschi, Alisa Pinarbasi, Laura Shope and Marshall combined to blow away second-place San Benito in the opening relay, Live Oak continued to show it had not only individual talent, but also an enviable amount of team depth.
Senior Laura Melroy won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:01.68, nearly two seconds better than her season best, and teammates Amanda Rosenberg and Melissa Poon finished fourth and sixth, respectively to give the Lady Acorns a combined 39 points in the event.
And so it went throughout the meet. Live Oak took the top-two spots in the 500-yard freestyle (Pinarbasi and Melroy), and enjoyed first and third-place finishes in the 200-yard IM and 100-yard breaststroke.
Shope again starred for the Lady Acorns, winning the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke.
Just about the only thing the Live Oak girls didn’t win was the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. ‘Balers standout freshman Shelli Reed overcame Gautschi, the Acorns’ anchor, with just over 50 yards to go and raced to the victory to the delight of her cheering team.
Reed also won the two individual events that eluded Live Oak, the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke.
The Acorn boys also jumped out to a quick lead, winning the opening relay and then taking first, second and fourth in the 200-yard freestyle.
But even after edging out teammate Mike Wu in the 200, Live Oak senior Justin Short knew that San Benito would be quite a handful for his teammates.
“It’s going to be a tough meet,” said Short after beating Wu 1:20.51 to 1:20.71. “It’s going to be hard to beat (the ‘Balers) in this meet, but I hope it comes out for us.”
San Benito used first, fourth and seventh-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly to close the gap on the Acorns, scoring 37 points to Live Oak’s 13. The ‘Balers clutched a narrow, seven-point lead heading into the 200-yard freestyle relay, but won that event to increase their margin over the Acorns to 252-233. The three relays were awarded double the number of points of the individual events.
Though Live Oak boys coach Mack Haines knew his team was likely headed for second place going into the final event, he was thrilled that the Acorns showed their resolve by beating the ‘Balers.
“I’m actually incredibly proud, and I thought that last relay personified the competitive spirit of our kids,” Haines said. “In the final event, when they knew the meet was over, you saw what they came up with.”
In particular, Haines singled out the contributions of seniors Shea Coleman and Short, lauding them for their steadfast commitment through four seasons each of varsity water polo and swimming. Teaming with Steven Rick and Wu, the Acorns posted a strong time of 3:19.64 in the 400-yard freestyle relay to give the Acorns some momentum heading into Friday’s Central Coast Section preliminaries.
On that front, Hernandez said her girls took more than the championship away from this meet.
“For confidence builder and just getting ready for the big meet,” said Hernandez when asked what the Live Oak girls were hoping to use the TCAL championships for. “We’re right in the middle of taper, so we’re continuing to rest. Sprint hard and get ready for CCS, where we should have bigger time drops.”
But Marshall also said that winning the league title was the type of lasting impression she and her teammates wanted to make.
“It’s our last year,” said Marshall, referring to the school’s upcoming transition to the Blossom Valley Athletic League. “We’ve always been dominant in TCAL. It’s just something we wanted to uphold and have everyone remember us as champions.”
