Edison swimming returns to top at Wave League finals
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It had been five years to the day since the Edison High swim team had won its last league titles in both genders.
“Exactly five years later,” coach Matt Whitmore, standing drenched on the pool deck at Golden West College early Thursday evening, said with a smile.
History repeated itself for the Chargers at this year’s Wave League finals.
Edison used superior depth to claim superiority in the four-team league, with both the boys and girls coming out on top. Fountain Valley finished second in both genders, followed by Marina and Laguna Beach.
The Chargers girls won the meet despite just one individual event win — junior Gaby Kelly in the 500-yard freestyle — and one relay win in the 200 free relay.
But junior Christina Bennett and freshman Celeste Schoonbeck each took third place in a pair of events, highlighting the depth that led Edison to the top.
Fountain Valley’s girls had beaten Edison 88-82 in the teams’ final league dual meet last week.
“I think we knew that we could do better, that wasn’t the best of us,” said Edison’s Olivia Lee, one of two senior team captains along with Sophia Sepe. “We knew that we had taper coming, we had tech suits coming. We were ready, and we could really push above and beyond what we had shown at that meet.”
Whitmore said he told his girls it would be the fourth swimmer in each event that would win the meet, and they listened.
Kelly became a three-time league champion in the 500 free, touching in 4:58.40. She was second to standout Fountain Valley junior Kaitlyn Nguyen (a personal-best 1:58.59) in the 200 individual medley. Kelly also touched in a personal-best, 2:07.63.
“I definitely like having her as competition,” Kelly said. “She’s an amazing swimmer and super-fast, and I think that pushes me a lot to strive to go out fast and bring it home. Even if I can’t win first, I can at least get second, which is always nice to have.”
Nguyen, a two-time CIF champion in the breaststroke, also won that event in 1:01.20. Fountain Valley freshman Alyssa Ton was another two-time winner, in the 200 free (a team-record 1:47.49) and the butterfly (55.05).
First-year Fountain Valley coach Nathan Wilcox, who coaches both girls in club swimming at Irvine Novaquatics, said his team had to improvise practices this year as a new pool is being built. The Barons had night practices at Edison and Ocean View.
“I think we have a lot of talented athletes, it’s just been a pretty hard year for us because we don’t have a pool,” Wilcox said, adding that water was just put in the new pool last week. “We’re excited to have a new facility and really focus on growing aquatics in our area.”
Laguna Beach senior Ava Knepper won the girls’ 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, after blazing to school-record times of 23.37 and 51.61 in each during the league preliminaries on Tuesday.
“I get in and just make myself go as hard as I possibly can, until I literally can’t feel my legs when I’m kicking,” said Knepper, headed to USC for water polo. “It’s been cool.”
Alex Marumoto was the top finisher for Marina, placing second in both the butterfly and breaststroke.
On the boys’ side, Edison senior Jacob Chalabian won both the butterfly (50.33) and the 500 free (4:35.32) in personal-best times. Holden Lee won the backstroke (51.08) and finished second in the fly.
“I really wanted our team to come together and get this win,” said Chalabian, who plans to attend Golden West next year. “That’s what we were fighting for all season. I’ve been here for four years, and we haven’t won yet. But we really picked it up this year and showed them what Edison swimming really is.”
Fountain Valley sophomore Peter Vu won the 200 freestyle (1:37.74) and also claimed the breaststroke in a school-record 54.99.
Barons junior Ranen Herman was another double-event winner, taking the 50 and 100 free in 21.71 and 47.90, respectively.
The CIF Southern Section swimming preliminaries and finals take place next week at Mt. San Antonio College. The Division 1 finals are Saturday at noon, while the Division 2 finals are Friday at 3 p.m.
Edison is in Division 1 for boys and Division 2 for girls, while Fountain Valley is in Division 1 for both genders.
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