The varsity swimming programs of Turlock and Pitman high school combined to win 14 events at Thursday's Central California Athletic League finals at Enochs High School, the final regular season clash of the season.
Despite the Pride winning five events, which included a record-breaking performance, it was not enough to catch the Bulldogs, who entered the morning undefeated in five duals.
The Bulldogs’ boys’ team claimed the CCAL crown with 550 total points on the year, 59 ahead of the Pride. The Turlock girls claimed their league championship with 484 points this season, 83 ahead of their crosstown counterparts.
As the Turlock program celebrated their titles, the Pride raved over a stellar individual performance put in by Heidi Lancaster. The senior posted a time of 1:11.99 on the 100-meter breaststroke, a new best time in history across the CCAL. The mark was more than enough — merely three seconds quicker — than the section qualifying mark.
Turlock’s Jacob Packwood turned in multiple winning performances as an individual. The first was in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:06.72, improving on his section-qualifying time by more than one second. The junior qualified to section’s in the 100-yard butterfly as well with a time of 55.85 seconds.
Also winning multiple individual events for the Bulldogs was Cooper Harris, who entered the CCAL Championships as the Bulldogs’ leading scorer. The senior won the 50-yard freestyle in 22.8 seconds. He then improved on his section-qualifying time by .06 seconds with a time of 50.01 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle.
Senior teammate Michael Rowan experienced similar success, winning the 500-yard freestyle in 5:16.06 to break the qualifying mark.
Other top-placing individual performances from Thursday were Turlock’s Kallie Parker in the girls’ 100-yard butterfly (1:07.10) and Miles Hakanson in the boys’ 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.62) and Pitman’s Jayda Salazar in the girls’ 100-yard freestyle (59.50) and Isaac Norenberg in the boys’ 100-yard backstroke (59.30).
The two programs also split relay wins, winning two apiece.
The Pride were victorious in the girls’ 200-yard medley relay, with the group of Lancaster, Emma Norenberg, Mia Ngo and Kaydence Braley smashing their qualifying time with a new mark of 2:04.21 — nearly four full seconds past the section’s threshold. The team of Lancaster, Salazar, Norenberg and Natalie Davis also won the girls’ 400-yard free relay with a time of 4:04.52, breezing by the qualifying mark by nearly 11 seconds.
Similar dominance was displayed by Turlock’s boys’ teams. The group of Packwood, Hakanson, Caleb Tucker and Jack Brem took the 200-yard medley relay in 2:04.21, qualifying with nearly four seconds to spare. Later, the 400-yard free relay team of Harris, Tucker, Ethan Parker and Jasper Reimers won with a time of 3:41.47, almost 20 seconds better than the qualifying time.
“The kids did great this season,” said Turlock boys coach Zach Glidden. “We saw a lot of growth and consistent PR's throughout the year. We gave the kids goals to focus on for the season and in this meet specifically… They are a fast group and they are going to continue to grow and have an awesome section meet.”
“We're pretty solid year to year, but I’d say this is more solid of a team than in the past,” said the Bulldogs’ girls coach, Anne Cornell. “Every year we continue to have a lot of really strong swimmers who really put in the work.”
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section meet will take place in Elk Grove, beginning with the girls trials on Wednesday, May 7. The boys trials will be the following day. Every qualifier out of trials will be in action on Friday, May 9 for the finals. Action each day will begin at 9 a.m.
