The San Diego Section’s swimming and diving championship meets, held last weekend at Southwestern College, continued to spotlight East County participants.
The Granite Hills showcase tandem of sophomore Ella Morgan and senior Austin Felio each won two individual gold medals while Grossmont sophomore Aramis Willett and Steele Canyon sophomore Kasey Gray also emerged out of the water with first-place medals.
Add to that a gold medal won by El Capitan senior Benjamin Brookshire in the Division II boys diving competition.
GOLDEN FINISHES
Both Morgan and Felio had to push hard to touch first in the 200 freestyle. Morgan (1:49.15) took the lead in the final 10 yards to edge Torrey Pines senior Aya Ferguson (1:49.30) while Felio (1:39.64) took the lead in the final 25 yards from Torrey Pines sophomore Kai Painter (1:39.92).
Felio won by 0.28 seconds while Morgan by an even closer 0.15 second margin in another bang-bang finish. Ferguson was the defending champion.
Both Morgan and Felio’s winning times were automatic state qualifying marks.
In the 500 distance, Morgan repeated as division champion with a time of 5:00.32 — a comfortable margin over runner-up Bela Pitts (5:08.23), a junior from Steele Canyon. Felio (4:30.93) expanded that winning margin to 10 seconds over Westview junior Braeden Renken (4:40.83).
Felio’s time met the automatic state qualifying standard while Morgan’s time met the state-qualifying consideration standard.
The state championship meet is May 14-16 in Clovis.
Both swimmers remain high achievers. Felio met the All- American automatic standard of 1:48.81 in the 200 freestyle and the consideration standard of 4:33.10 in the 500 freestyle. Morgan met the All-American consideration time of 1:50.65 in the 200 freestyle.
Morgan and Felio both competed in two relay events for Granite Hills, placing third in the boys 4×40 event and fifth in both the boys and girls 4×100 events.
Pitts also competed in the 200 freestyle, placing fourth in 1:53.70.
Willett repeated as the Division I butterfly champion in 47.58, besting last year ’s winning time of 48.32 as a freshman. He easily made the automatic state qualifying cut of 49.54 and the automatic All-American cut of 48.38.
The Foothiller swimmer also placed third in the 200 freestyle in a state consideration time of 1:40.49 and swam a leg on Grossmont’s third place 400 freestyle relay team (a state consideration 3:12.49).
Gray also easily dipped under the automatic state qualifying time of 1:04.24 in out-touching the field in 1:03.71 — well ahead of Carlsbad sophomore Shelby Evans (1:05.26) in second place.
Evans won last year’s title in 1:03.41.
Gray has already met the All- American consideration time of 1:03.85 in the event.
The Lady Cougar swimmer, who qualified for last year’s state meet in the 100 backstroke, opened the meet with a runner-up finish in the girls 200 individual medley in 2:04.43 (state consideration).
“I feel like honestly everything is going great,” said Gray, the Grossmont Hills League individual medley and breaststroke champion. “I’m working toward Junior Nationals. I’m trying for the Olympic Trials in 2028.”
Brookshire, who is in his third year on the dive board, moved up from last year’s third place finish with the top score of 230.15 points this year. He ranked second overall among the combined field of 20 male divers.
“I practiced at SDSU with the SDSU dive coach over the fall and winter, it helped improve my form,” he said.
“His 105c (front two-and-a-half twist tuck) was the best he’s ever done,” El Capitan co-coach Craig Schoonderwoerd noted.
Brookshire, so also competes in the 50 and 100 freestyle and medley relay events, is the first Vaquero diver to qualify for the state meet.
“I’m super happy, it’s a good way to end my senior year,” he said. “It’s a big accomplishment.”
Brookshire finished as this year’s Grossmont Valley League boys dive champion while freshman Jayden Fetty won the league girls title.
“Now that we have a CIF champion and state qualifier, we would like to get more divers out for the team,” El Cap coach Chelsea Schoonderwoerd said.
A total of 49 divers, including 29 girls, competed at this year’s CIF diving finals. The top eight finishers in each division received medals.
Mission Hills’ Isaac Peralta won this year’s Division 1 title with 257.25 points.
On the girls card, Patrick Henry freshman Maya Chennamchetty won the Division I title with 281.35 points ahead of classmate Zoe Rainey (223.50 points) while La Jolla Country Day junior Tillie McIntyre won the Division II title with b242.60 points ahead of Mt. Carmel senior Sol D’Angelo (239.10 points).
El Capitan senior Kaelyn Williams, who finished third at the Grossmont Valley League championship meet, finished ninth in the Division II field.
Sixteen divers competed in the Division I girls field, including three from East County — Steele Canyon sophomore Piper Rand (fifth, 183.80 points), Grossmont senior Kennedy Moe (eighth, 165.70 points) and Granite Hills senior Laynie Allen (13th, 146.95 points).
“It feels great to be here after I didn’t get to go to CIF last year,” Rand said.
“It feels really good to get top eight,” said Moe, who edged Rand for this year’s Grossmont Hills League title.
Three Granite Hills divers competed in the 11-deep Division I boys card: freshman Milan Marjanovich (fourth, 195.15 points), sophomore Rawson Jenkins (ninth, 148.40 points) and junior Anson Neibert (10th, 145.65 points).
Marjanovich is a first-year diver.
“He never dove before, he’s been a very pleasant surprise,” Granite Hills dive coach Kara Anderson said. “We have the largest team in the conference with 10 divers. It’s been a fun season.”
