By Reese Meister
Disclaimer: Reese Meister is a member of the FVHS swim team.
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Barons swim team placed second overall at this year’s Sunset Conference Wave League Finals on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The Barons finished with 1,595 combined points, behind Edison High School’s (EHS) 1,796 points but ahead of Marina High School’s (MHS) 977 points and Laguna Beach High School’s (LBHS) 674 points. FVHS’s girls’ and boys’ junior varsity and varsity all came in second place behind EHS, while the Barons’ open teams both placed first in their respective categories.
The meet began with the 4 x 50 yard medley relay, where the varsity girls led their event by bringing excited energy to the race. With a time of 1:45.45, the team of freshman Alyssa Ton, junior Kaitlyn Nguyen, senior captain Jianna Balta and junior Leyna Nguyen finished well ahead of the second place MHS team. In a closer race, the boys’ team of sophomores Andrew Nguyen and Peter Vu, junior Anderson Luu and senior captain Goten Huynh fell less than two seconds behind the EHS Chargers’ team to touch the wall in second place with a time of 1:39.27.
In the first individual event, the 200 yard freestyle, Ton and senior captain Reese Meister placed first and second, respectively, with times of 1:47.49 and 2:00.10. They maintained their placement from prelims, but no other Barons placed in the top eight at finals. The boys also started strongly, with Vu finishing first with a time of 1:37.74, and like Ton, easily winning by over 10 seconds. After EHS’s Mason Shaff, junior Anderson Luu, senior captain Daigo Fujita and freshman Tyler Hoang placed third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Kaitlyn Nguyen led the girls’ varsity 200 yard individual medley, breaking the two-minute barrier with her time of 1:58.59, more than a two-second time drop from her seed time from prelims. Nguyen made the challenging event look easy, securing a comfortable gap between her and the second place finisher from EHS. Freshman Kayla Nguyen and senior Breanne Luu also secured placement in the top eight, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.
FVHS boys’ varsity also earned three top-eight finishes; however, the Chargers earned significant points with first and second place finishes. The Barons’ top performer was Andrew Nguyen, who maintained his third place prelims seed by finishing with a 1:59.70. Senior Adam Gustin and freshman Forsetti Tran finished in seventh and eighth, respectively.
In an exciting 50 yard freestyle, Leyna Nguyen’s time of 24.47 and Balta’s 24.93 landed them in second and third place, only behind LBHS’s star freestyler, Ava Knepper. The boys also found success in this event, with junior Ranen Herman earning a decisive win with a time of 21.71. Huynh secured more valuable points for the team with his fifth place finish.
Girls’ varsity carried this momentum into the 100 yard butterfly, where Ton’s time of 55.05 won her an uncontested first place. Balta dropped over a second from her prelims time to touch in third place, behind an MHS swimmer, and senior captain Ryli Sotakoun finished in seventh. However, the Barons struggled in the boys’ event, where EHS swept the heat with their four swimmers earning the top four placements. Anderson Luu, senior captain Brian Pham and freshman Justin Doan placed fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively, to earn more points than either MHS or LBHS in the event.
Next, in the 100 yard freestyle, Knepper again easily finished first for LBHS, but Meister touched second for the Barons with a time of 54.83. Sophomore Rita Wilton moved into eighth place, an improvement from her ninth place result in prelims. Herman had another impressive first place performance for the boys, dropping almost a second from prelims for a time of 47.90. Pham also saw a time improvement from prelims and maintained his position in seventh place.
Both FVHS’s girls’ and boys’ varsity struggled against their main competition, the Chargers, in the 500 yard freestyle. In the girls’ event, EHS placed first, third and fourth, leaving the Barons’ fastest finisher, Sotakoun, in fifth place with a time of 5:52.00. Kayla Nguyen and senior Liberty Jones each saw dramatic time improvements from prelims, with Nguyen moving up two places from prelims into seventh place and Jones maintaining her eighth place position. The Chargers again dominated the boys’ heat with top-three finishes. The Barons had two top-eight finishers; Fujita finished fourth with a 4:54.79 and freshman Philip Rodriguez secured eighth place.
The Barons continued to fall behind the Chargers in the 4 x 50 yard freestyle relay. The FVHS team of Balta, Meister, junior Setareh Nassiri and Wilton came in less than a second behind EHS to touch in second, and the B relay team came in fourth. The boys’ team — Herman, Hoang, Doan and Pham — also finished second behind the Chargers, while the FVHS B team placed sixth.
Leyna Nguyen’s impressive time of 1:01.40 earned her a first-place finish in the following event, the 100 yard backstroke, bringing some renewed energy for the Barons. However, EHS continued to collect important points with second, third and fifth place finishes. Senior Jessica Jang and Breanne Luu placed sixth and eighth, respectively. While EHS won the boys’ heat, Andrew Nguyen was able to secure second place with his time of 56.27, and Hoang earned fourth with a 56.82.
Kaitlyn dominated her second individual event, the 100 yard breaststroke, with her time of 1:01.20 putting her about half of a pool length ahead of the second place MHS finisher. EHS and MHS swimmers filled most of the top eight, but Jones touched in eighth place with over a second time improvement from prelims. In the boys’ race, Vu swept past his competition in a similar manner to Nguyen, finishing first with a 54.99. Other Barons were also successful in the race; Huynh came in second, and Gustin touched just behind an EHS swimmer to earn fourth.
To close out the night, the Barons’ team of Ton, Kaitlyn Nguyen, Leyna Nguyen and Meister won the 4 x 100 yard freestyle relay by about a pool’s length. They came in at 3:32.35, and Ton and Kaitlyn Nguyen swam splits that would have won the 100 yard freestyle event. The B team came in sixth, but unfortunately, the girls’ varsity performance throughout the entire meet was not enough to come out ahead of the Chargers. The two FVHS boys’ teams came in behind EHS for second and third place. The Barons’ A team consisted of Vu, Andrew Nguyen, Huynh and Herman, and they finished with a time of 3:14.03.
Despite finishing behind the Chargers, head coach Nathan Wilcox was happy with the team’s energy and support of each other.
“I think the team came together and they raced as a team and they were really trying to win the meet,” Wilcox said. “Cheering and being there for their teammates — racing as a team was something that was huge.”
Wilcox also commented on the circumstances of the team’s season, noting that the outcome of this finals meet was impressive given what the team has endured.
“I think this season was tough. I think not having a pool, not having morning workouts, not having a weight room — I think there was a lot of adversity, and I think we’ve dealt with that really well,” Wilcox said. “To be coming in with probably half of the resources and half of the pool time that other teams had and to finish second, and almost win, I think was a huge sign and feels a lot of potential for the future. And so the coaching staff is excited for 2025.”
Heading into the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) meet next week, Wilcox plans to “tune things up” and work on small aspects of races that could make significant differences in results.
“Get [the team] a bit better on [their] relay exchanges, starts, turns — get [the team] ready to go. I think there’s a lot of untapped potential,” Wilcox said. “I know that not everybody was fully rested. I think some more rest … will help some people out, and we’ll be a lot faster.”
Qualifying FVHS swimmers will compete in the Division I CIF-Southern Section meet at Mt. San Antonio College on Thursday, May 2 for prelims and Saturday, May 4 for finals.
