USC Swimmers Win 3 of 6 Events on Last Day of Fullerton Sectionals

2021 California/Nevada Gold Summer Sectionals – Fullerton Site

• July 15–18, 2021
• Janet Evans Swim Complex, Fullerton, California
• Long Course Meters, Prelims/Finals
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2021 Summer CA-NV Sectional” or search “Fullerton”

This week’s California-Nevada Summer Sectional Championship, usually held in one site, is split between Fullerton in the south and Roseville in the north. The meet is only open to teams from the 5 LSCs in California (which includes most of the state of Nevada) as well as Hawaii (no teams from Hawaii have made the trip to the mainland).

USC’s Courtney Tseng won the 800 free in 8:58.86, 2.8 seconds faster than she swam at Grand Challenge in May. She was the fastest she had been since 2017 when she clocked a 8:54.00 at U.S. Open. Tseng also won the 200 free and was runner-up in the 400 IM on Friday.

Ben Dillard and Scott Sobolewski, also from USC, went 1-3 in the 200 IM with 2:07.43 and 2:10.63, respectively. 15-year-old Nathan Wu of Aquazot Swim Club was runner-up with 2:09.67. Seeded 19th with 2:18.05, Wu clocked a 2:12.18 in prelims to qualify 5th for the final. He then dropped another 2.5 seconds, missing the Summer Juniors cut by just 1.38 seconds.

Guillermo Cruz Zuniga of USC and Patrick Park from the host team in Fullerton tied for gold in the men’s 50 free. Cruz Zuniga was entered with 23.14. He went 24.17 in prelims and 23.70 in the final. Park came in with a seed time of 23.02. He notched a 23.98 in prelims and a 23.70 in the final. Lakewood’s Sullivan Moore was 3rd in 23.93, the only other sub-24 in the field.

Other event winners:

• FAST Swim Team’s Simon Lamar completed the distance sweep with a 15:37.92 in the 1500 free. He had won the 800 free on Thursday and the 400 free on Saturday. His time of 15:37.92 was the fastest he has been since the summer of 2016, when he placed 3rd in the 1500 with 15:22.03 at Summer Juniors.
• Aquazot Swim Club’s Michelle Tekawy claimed victory in the 200 IM with 2:24.63. Kailee Chow from Fullerton (FAST) was runner-up in 2:26.15, an improvement of 3.1 seconds from her seed time.
• Sonja Aarsvold from Riverside Aquatics Association dropped over half a second to win the 50 free with 27.26.
• Riverside (Martinez-Spencer, Leilani Abalos, Aarsvold, and Ava De Anda) won the women’s 400 medley relay with 4:29.24, just ahead of Pacific Swim (Delaney Alonso, Ashlyn Hernandez, Hannah McIver, and Ashley Rowe) who went 4:30.40.
• Golden West took the men’s relay in 3:58.17. Kenta Chiyo, Haruhi Yamagata, Colin Geer, and Aiden Sandvig contributed to the win. Riverside (Matthew Vinh, Reese Gonzales, Wyatt Miner, and Joshua Delizo) went 4:01.44 for 2nd.

Team Scores – Day 4

Women’s Meet

1. Riverside Aquatics Association – 452
2. North Coast Aquatics – 414
3. FAST Swim Team – 233
4. Aquazot Swim Club – 229
5. Pacific Swim – 174
6. Tule Nation Tritons – 151
7. Swim Torrance – 140
8. Fusion Aquatics – 125
9. San Clemente Aquatic Team – 99
10. Trojan Aquatics Swim Club – 98
11. Irvine Novaquatics – 94
12. Trident Swim Club – 77
13. Roadrunner Aquatic – 75.5
14. CLASS Aquatics – 68
15. JCC Waves – 63.5
16. San Dimas Aquatics – 58
17. Golden West Swim Club/Unattached TASC – 57
18. (tie)
19. Los Angeles Swim Club – 44
20. Lakewood Aquatics – 42

Men’s Meet

1. FAST Swim Team – 478.5
2. Trojan Aquatics Swim Club – 316.5
3. Golden West Swim Club – 217
4. Swim Torrance – 210
5. Riverside Aquatics Association – 191
6. CCAT Swimming – 165
7. Blast Sharks – 157
8. Irvine Novaquatics / San Clemente Aquatic Team – 129
9. (tie)
10. North Coast Aquatics – 124
11. Pacific Swim – 115
12. Aquazot Swim Club / Temecula Swim Club – 112
13. (tie)
14. Fusion Aquatics – 110
15. Lakewood Aquatics – 102
16. Unattached TASC – 69
17. Paseo Aquatics Swim Team / Unattached GWSC – 51
18. (tie)
19. Team Santa Monica – 37
20. Santa Barbara Swim Club – 36