It was as close as ever before, but the Live Oak High boys and
girls swim teams both emerged with league titles at the Tri-County
Athletic League finals at LO on Friday. Led by double winner Ryan
Gautschi and their strong relay teams, the Acorn boys edged
second-place Hollister-San Benito 342-312, with Gilroy a distant
third with 222 points. And, the Acorn girls went down to the last
individual event before pulling out a 336-317 victory over Salinas,
while Hollister-SB was third with 231 points and Gilroy was fifth
with 93. The top TCAL swimmers now move on to compete in the
Central Coast Section finals at Stanford University next
Saturday.
It was as close as ever before, but the Live Oak High boys and girls swim teams both emerged with league titles at the Tri-County Athletic League finals at LO on Friday.
Led by double winner Ryan Gautschi and their strong relay teams, the Acorn boys edged second-place Hollister-San Benito 342-312, with Gilroy a distant third with 222 points. And, the Acorn girls went down to the last individual event before pulling out a 336-317 victory over Salinas, while Hollister-SB was third with 231 points and Gilroy was fifth with 93.
The top TCAL swimmers now move on to compete in the Central Coast Section finals at Stanford University next Saturday.
LO’s boys team entered Friday’s finals with a lead in points thanks to the efforts of the Acorn divers – Stephen Shope, Lee Bell and Ferry Unger, who finished second, third and fifth overall in Wednesday’s TCAL diving finals. And the Acorn boys used nearly every one of those extra points against a competitive Haybaler boys team, led by double winner David Smith (200 freestyle, 100 backstroke).
But LO got wins in the 500 free and 100 breaststroke from Gautschi, relay victories in the 200 free and 200 medley, and took the top three spots in the 500 free (Mike Wu, Kyle Fast and Sam Cretcher) to capture the title.
Gilroy’s Santiago Maciel was also a double-winner, taking the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.
But it was the girls competition that was the real earth-shaker, as Salinas took advantage of a big lead in the diving finals and had the lead going into the final individual event in an upset bid.
But LO dominated the Cowboys in the 200 breaststroke, taking a second (Laura Shope) and third (Jessica Poon), while Salinas lagged far behind in the event. And, the Acorn girls capped the win with a first-place finish in the 400 free relay (Poon, Shope, Amy Marshall and Laura Melroy).
Melroy turned in a double-win for LO, taking the 200 free and 500 free, while Shope won the 50 free and the knee surgery-bound Ronni Gautschi gutted out a victory in the 100 free.
