By Reese Meister
Disclaimer: Reese Meister is a member of the FVHS swim team.
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Barons swim team defeated the Edison High School (EHS) Chargers on the rainy afternoon of Tuesday, March 14, with a final score of 567-372 for all levels combined. Separately, the varsity girls won with a score of 115-55 and the varsity boys team with a score of 109-61.
The girls’ varsity team started off with an incredible win in the 4×50 yard medley relay, taking both first and second place in the event. Sophomore Leyna Nguyen secured the lead for the team with her backstroke in the first leg, followed by sophomore Kaitlyn Nguyen’s quick breaststroke that extended it further. Senior Yen Dang and junior Jianna Balta finished off strong, touching at 1:54.14, about six seconds in front of the next team.
Right after, the boys pulled out another crucial victory, though it was a much closer race. Even after an impressive backstroke leg from senior Justin Chen, the Barons fell narrowly behind the Chargers. Freshman Peter Vu then caught up for the lead in the breastroke leg, and senior Benjamin Pham kept the position in butterfly. When sophomore Ranen Herman dove in for the final leg, the race was neck and neck, but he pulled out with the victory, out-touching the Chargers by only 13 hundredths of a second and with a time of 1:42.22.
Next came the girls 200 yard freestyle, where Leyna Nguyen and her teammate, sophomore Jayme Finnerty, competed for the lead. Nguyen secured the win in the end with a time of 2:06.25, followed closely by Finnerty. In the boys 200, Chen had a consistent lead, finishing first with a time of 1:51.57. Senior captain Brendan Pham finished well to place second for FVHS.
In the 200 yard individual medley, Kaitlyn Nguyen dominated the event with a time of 2:09.40, flying past her competitors from the start of the race. Balta also had an impressive swim, touching third. In the boys’ heat, FVHS defeated the Chargers again with Vu touching first at 2:00.88 and Benjamin Pham finishing second, both finishing well ahead of their opponents.
Dang, who swam a 26.31, and senior captain Rylie Fox sprinted to first and second place in the 50 yard freestyle, continuing the Barons’ winning streak. For the boys, junior Gavin Tran won with a 23.58, and senior Dzinh Pham took third.
With very little rest in between back-to-back events, Dang still pulled through for the team in the 100 yard butterfly, a very challenging race. She touched first with an incredible time of 1:01.45, and junior Ryli Sotakoun also did well, securing third place. In a close heat, Benjamin Pham and junior Jeremy Nguyen touched second and third, respectively, after strong swims, trailing only slightly behind the first-place finisher.
Girls’ varsity swept the 100 yard freestyle, with junior Reese Meister, Balta and Fox taking first, second and third, respectively. Herman and freshman Andrew Nguyen swam fast races, finishing with a 51.79 and 52.90, respectively, but they fell shortly behind the leading Charger, taking second and third place in the end.
During the 500 yard freestyle, the longest event swam in high school meets, Finnerty touched second with a 5:52.44 after a solid race. Meanwhile, Vu once again shattered his competition, finishing first by 15 seconds with a time of 4:50.29, and making it look effortless. His teammate Brendan Pham also swam well in order to earn third place.
The FVHS girls 4×50 yard freestyle relay teams finished first and third in the event. The first place team, made up of Leyna Nguyen, Meister, Fox and Kaitlyn Nguyen, led throughout the entire race, finishing with a 1:44.05. The boys’ swept their event, earning both first and second place out of the four teams competing. The winning team of Dzinh Pham, Tran, Jeremy Nguyen and Herman, swam a time of 1:35.81, but both FVHS teams were well ahead of the Chargers.
Nearing the end of the meet, Leyna Nguyen and sophomore Kayla Nguyen kept up the positive results by touching first and third, respectively, in the 100 yard backstroke. Leyna Nguyen came in at a 1:06.10, over three seconds faster than the next finisher. For the boys, Chen was able to finish second after an impressive swim and time of 57.22.
The Barons once again swept their competition in the girls 100 yard breaststroke; Kaitlyn Nguyen, Meister and senior captain Peyton Sherwood took the top three places. Nguyen led the way with a time of 1:05.63, more than ten seconds ahead of anyone else in the heat, a very impressive accomplishment. The boys had similar success in the event when Herman and junior Goten Huynh came in consecutively for first and second. Herman out-touched Huynh by just three hundredths of a second with his time of 1:05.27.
To close out the meet, the FVHS girls 4×100 yard freestyle relay teams took first and third place. Dang, Balta, Finnerty and Meister secured first by gradually building their lead throughout the race, touching at 3:54.86. In the boys’ relay, the Barons’ two teams similarly placed first and third. The winning team was made up of Chen, Benjamin Pham, Dzinh Pham and Vu, who worked together to swim a 3:24.28, almost five seconds ahead of the next team.
Overall, this was a very successful first dual meet for the Barons, giving them confidence going into the rest of the season. Sherwood, a varsity team captain, expressed her excitement about the team’s performance after the meet.
“I think we absolutely crushed it,” Sherwood said. “We got first place in almost every single event, at least for varsity. Girls really, really brought it, and the guys—there were some really close races, but they definitely pulled ahead. [Open stayed] strong even when goggles were falling off… they still held their spots. JV [was] strong as always.”
Head coach Christine Locke shared similar sentiments to Sherwood. She noted how this meet also served as a valuable experience for new swimmers to adjust to the sport and competitions.
“We killed it! It was awesome,” Locke said. “There were a lot of nerves…because it’s the first league meet of the year, so there’s a lot more pressure there. But overall, everyone showed up.”
Despite the impressive results of the meet, Locke mentioned how the team can always improve in some aspects like getting to races on time or picking up the tempo.
“It’s just a good meet to show us where we stand right now—what we need to work on,” Locke said. “Always the things like turns, underwaters and then just still continuing to build up strength… and then just building confidence too: they’re swimmers—it’s a huge thing.”
Sherwood brought up a different aspect that the team could improve on, focusing more on habits outside of the pool.
“I think the only thing I’d say we should improve on for the next meet is just team spirit because a lot of us will only cheer for our own teams—so like varsity will cheer for varsity,” Sherwood said. “But I think if we can start cheering for everyone—no matter their team and no matter what event they are, whether they’re a guy or girl—if we just build that team spirit, I think it’ll really help us out.”
The Barons next meet will take place at Marina High School on Tuesday, March 21, and they hope to continue their successful performances.
