By Reese Meister
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Barons swim team faced a difficult loss to the Edison High School (EHS) Chargers in both teams’ final dual meet of the season on Tuesday, April 16, with a final combined-level score of 424-552. Despite the overall loss, both the varsity girls’ team and open boys’ team beat the respective EHS teams.
The varsity girls began the meet with a decisive win in the 4×50 yard medley relay. The team of freshman Alyssa Ton, junior Kaitlyn Nguyen, senior captain Jianna Balta and junior Leyna Nguyen completed the race with a time of 1:47.62, just over 12 seconds ahead of the Chargers’ team, while the other FVHS team secured third place.
EHS then responded by earning first and third place in the boys’ varsity medley relay, though by a narrower margin. The Barons’ team of sophomore Andrew Nguyen, sophomore Peter Vu, junior Anderson Luu and junior Ranen Herman fell less than two seconds behind the Chargers’ winning team.
Ton extended the girls’ varsity team’s lead with her continued domination in the 200 yard freestyle. With her impressive time of 1:51.92, this freshman phenom finished about 14 seconds ahead of the next swimmer to touch, senior captain Reese Meister with a time of 2:05.51. Meanwhile, the Chargers again won first and second place in the boys’ 200 freestyle, just out-touching Luu, who finished third with a time of 1:50.61.
Next, in the 200 yard individual medley, Kaitlyn Nguyen earned another first-place finish for her team. She steadily extended her lead throughout a strong race, almost 11 seconds in front of the next finisher when she touched at 2:01.94. For the boys, Andrew Nguyen earned second place with a 2:01.99, just behind EHS’s first-place finisher. Unfortunately, the Barons did not win any other top-three finishes for either boys or girls in this event.
In what is usually an extremely tight event because of its short distance, Leyna Nguyen and Balta finished first and second in the 50 yard freestyle with times of 25.06 and 26.00, respectively, with a significant victory over the Chargers. The boys then extended the team’s momentum with Vu and senior captain Goten Huynh also leading their heat with respective times of 21.91 and 23.16.
The Barons found more success in the 100 yard butterfly with the continued efforts of Ton and Balta. Ton once again delivered an incredible swim with her time of 56.66, and Balta pushed herself to finish at 1:06.70 and out-touch the Charger in the neighboring lane. Unfortunately, the boys again struggled against the Chargers’ competitive times, with Luu placing highest for the Barons at third place and a time of 57.26.
The 100 yard freestyle proved to be one of the more challenging events for the Barons; only junior Setareh Nassiri placed in the top three for girls’ varsity, earning second with a time of 1:00.64, while EHS swept the boys’ heat with their top three finishes in a close race.
This slump for the Barons continued into the following event, the 500 yard freestyle. This time, the Chargers’ girls’ varsity team dominated the event with top-three finishes, while senior captain Daigo Fujita placed third with a 5:08.05 by narrowly out-touching a Charger in the boys’ heat.
FVHS found some renewed energy in the 4×50 freestyle relay. A team of seniors — captain Ryli Sotakoun, Riley Bridges, Jessica Jang and Liberty Jones — finished just ahead of the Chargers’ B team to secure second place points with a time of 1:52.33. Right after, the boys excited the team with their first and third place results. The first place team won by over a second with a time of 1:33.07 and consisted of Herman, freshman Tyler Hoang, Andrew Nguyen and Huynh.
As the meet neared its end, Leyna Nguyen brought in another first place in the 100 yard backstroke with her time of 1:02.24, contributing essential points to the girls’ varsity team as the score was neck-and-neck with EHS. Andrew Nguyen continued to be a valuable asset for the boys’ team with his quick time of 57.55, earning second place.
In the 100 yard breaststroke, Kaitlyn Nguyen easily won the heat with a time of 1:03.13, and Meister took third with a 1:14.03. Vu and Huynh also performed well in this event, earning more points for the Barons by placing first and third, respectively, with times of 56.12 and 1:03.41.
To close out the meet, the FVHS girls’ varsity was able to hold on to their narrow lead over EHS by placing first and third in the 4×100 freestyle relay. The first place team started out strong with Ton swimming the first leg, then only extended their sizable lead as Kaitlyn Nguyen, Leyna Nguyen and Balta finished out strong to earn a time of 3:39.29. The boys’ teams placed second and third in the final race of the night. Vu, Luu, Huynh and senior Adam Gustin each did their part to come in at 3:24 in second place.
Overall, coach Andrew Koustik felt content with the open, junior varsity and girls’ varsity performance but noted a desire for improvement among the boys’ varsity team. He hopes that the team can make progress in the final week of the season.
The Barons will race again at the Wave League Prelims meet at Golden West College at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23 and Wave League Finals at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 25. Koustik shared his goals for the team heading into this important meet.
“I think we need to be ready … we need to have trust in ourselves and be independent and know that we’re fast swimmers,” Koustik said. “We need to set our expectations higher … overall, I think we can all be better, and that’s the expectation.”
