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Just like any quality competitive pool, Wilson girls’ swimming is deep.
That depth was on display at the Moore League Finals on Thursday night at Cabrillo where the Bruins won a fourth consecutive league championship despite not winning a single race.
Poly won seven of the 11 races, but Wilson took an early team score lead and never looked back on its way to 546 total team points. The Jackrabbits were second with 457 points while Millikan was third at 382.
“We’re aware that Poly has seven all-star swimmers, but we know we are strong too and we have that depth,” Wilson coach Kristin Barth said. “We may have not won one race but we were second, third and fourth.”
Last week in the league meet between Wilson and Poly, the Jackrabbits used a final relay win to beat the Bruins 86-84. The emotional loss in the last league action in Wilson Natatorium didn’t keep the Bruins down for long.
“We were all pretty bummed but I don’t think it really affected us because we knew we had this second chance to beat them here,” Wilson’s Abby Billish said. “We knew that if we cheered each other on (tonight) that we would do our best. We are all our best selves at the moment.”
The league finals were moved back to Cabrillo this year and ran incredibly smoothly under the guidance of Cabrillo coach :Lawrence Durand.
“It’s really cool it came back here,” he said. “The great thing is the teamwork from everybody. It’s a labor of love. It doesn’t matter how much work I have to do, I just like to have the responsibility to be able to serve Long Beach. That’s why we’re here.”
Poly’s Belle Puckett was the swimmer of the meet with wins in the 200 Freestyle, 500 Freestyle and both freestyle relays.
“(Wilson) won and it shows how much depth they have, but this shows that at Poly we still have stars,” Puckett said.
Puckett was the first Jackrabbit in the pool for the 400 Freestyle relay, and when she came up after the start her goggles slipped down. Puckett didn’t let it stop her from helping her team finish on top in the finale.
“I was taught to keep persevering even if you have a mishap, even if you slip you have to swim as fast as humanly possible to catch up,” she said. “My goggles fell but I was not about to let my team down just because of that. I was going to try my best.”
Poly also got multiple wins from Maya Guevara who was dominant in the 50 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle.
There were plenty of standout individual performances to highlight and most of them are underclassmen. Wilson’s Billish is a freshman who was right behind the Poly winners in multiple races to gather key points. During the meet while the Jackrabbits took the top spot, Billish and her teammates were going to the results board to look at the team scores instead of the order of finish.
“We knew we were winning in the long run,” said Billish, who posted a CIF qualifying time in the 500 Freestyle.
“I taught her how to swim when she was little so it’s really cool to see her swim at this level and swim like this,” Barth said of Billish.
Elsewhere, Millikan star Kylie Montiel got the Rams on the board with the 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke. Millikan coach Mike Carrillo said that she has been a great leader for the Rams by improving over the last three years.
Millikan sophomore Sienna Ramirez also made history by setting a new school record in the 100 Breaststroke at 1:06.98.
“I was just trying to push myself and hoping for the best, but I knew it was going to take extra effort,” Ramirez said.
The Rams won the first race of the meet as Montiel, Ramirez, Lake Fisher, Karina Ruiz edged out Wilson in the 200 Medley Relay.
While Poly won the next three races, Wilson’s lead still grew and the Bruins had a cushion of over 50 points for the rest of the meet.
Lakewood sophomore Kaylee Cuizon led the Lancers by dropping her times in the 200 IM and 100 Butterfly.
Jordan was led by Jocelyn Martinez (50 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle) and Melony Madrid (200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle) who posted CIF Division 4 consideration times.
Cabrillo junior Flor Garibay broke a junior varsity record in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:17.56.
RESULTS
200 Medley Relay: Millikan (1:51.75) Kylie Montiel, Sienna Ramirez, Lake Fisher, Karina Ruiz
200 Freestyle: Belle Puckett, Poly (1:54.65)
200 IM: Phoebe Kuo, Poly (2:09.85)
50 Freestyle: Maya Guevara, Poly (24.45)
100 Butterfly: Kylie Montiel, Millikan (58.37)
100 Freestyle: Maya Guevara, Poly (53.52)
500 Freestyle: Belle Puckett, Poly (5:07.74)
200 Freestyle Relay: Poly (1:40.16) Kayla Nguyen, Phoebe Kuo, Sequoia Newman, Belle Puckett
100 Backstroke: Kylie Montiel, Millikan (58.13)
100 Breaststroke: Sienna Ramirez, Millikan (1:06.98)
400 Freestyle Relay: Poly (3:38.64)
TEAM SCORES
Wilson 546
Poly 457
Millikan 382
Lakewood 195
Jordan 114
Cabrillo 14
