Redlands High girls’ swimmers 6th in Div. 2; Arrowhead Christian girls’ 3rd in CIF Div. 4

Senior Juliette Early of Arrowhead Christian Academy made a big splash in her final CIF Southern Section swim championships with four second-place finishes at the Division 4 finals at Mt. San Antonio College on May 7.

Early, who has signed a letter of intent to continue her swim career at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, CA., finished second in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. She swam a leg on the Eagles’ 4X50-yard freestyle relay that took second and duplicated that effort on her team’s 4X50-yard medley relay.

Division 4 girls

ACA finished third in Division 4 team points with 134.5. Loma Linda Academy placed fifth in the girls’ team scoring with 115.

Early, along with teammates Grace Price, Payton Wolfe and Joy Hemsley, were timed in 1:57.96 for second place in the 4X50 medley relay. She then took second in the 50-yard freestyle in 24.45 and the 100-yard freestyle in 53.51.

The same ACA foursome combined to swim the 4X50-yard freestyle in 1:45.43 to place second.

Loma Linda Academy’s Myla Benggon took second in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:02.09 and then finished fourth in the 200-meter individual medley in 2:18.06. Benggon teamed with Emma Kim, Sofia Garcia and Jade Yu to take third in the 4X50-yard medley relay in 2:00.82.

Loma Linda finished ninth in the 4X50-yard relay with Garcia, Sydney Bellau, Madison Costanza and Kim, timed in 1:54.84. Grace Price of ACA was 13th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:16.69 and sixth in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:47.85.

Division 2 girls

Meanwhile, Redlands High girls, competing in Division 2 finals, got strong performances from freshman Maddison Miner who was sixth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:52.49 and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:05.22.

Miner joined with teammates Elisha de Vera, Valerie Na, and her sister Mackenzie Miner to take third in the 4X50 yard freestyle relay in 1:38.51. She later participated in the Terriers’ 4X100 freestyle relay along with de Vera, sister Mackenzie and Jiare Li to take sixth in 3:39.85.

de Vera finished the 50-yard freestyle in 24.42, good enough for fourth place but she was disqualified by meet officials and placed ninth, costing RHS 17 points in the team scoring. de Vera later finished 10th in the 100-yard freestyle in 53.29. Felicia Na of RHS was 10th in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:08.00.

Redlands girls finished the Division 2 meet with 123 points in sixth place.

Division 2 boys

In Division 2 boys’ competition, Redlands High was 35th with 28 points and Redlands East Valley was 40th with 18 points.

Senior Maxim Kutsner of RHS surprisingly finished ninth in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.21 after a 50.58 time in the prelims and a season-best 49.71 during the season. Kutsner did not make the finals in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing 35th in the prelims with a time of 58.77, seven seconds slower than his season best time of 51.79.

Kutsner did combine with teammates Benjamin Licto, Anthony Gerges and Elijah Riggins to finish 11th in the 4X50-yard medley relay in 1:38.49.

Redlands East Valley’s William Dahnke was 12th in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:44.52. Jaxon Minako of REV was 18th in the 100-yard freestyle in 48.74. REV’s 4X100-yard freestyle relay team of Andrik Jimenez, Ratjvol Ravishankar, Nimako and Dahnke finished 14th in 3:16.34.

In Division 4 boys’ events, ACA was 10th with 73 points followed by Cajon High in 34th spot with 23 points and Loma Linda Academy 38th with 18 points. Aquinas High of San Bernardino was the champion in Division 4 boys with 162 points.

Division 4 boys

The Arrowhead Christian boys’ 4X50-yard medley relay team of Ethan Hekman, Jonathan Odenbaugh, Hayne Crum and Branden Antonucci took second in 1:47.14. Heckman took sixth place in the 50-yard freestyle in 22.47 and third in the 100-yard backstroke in 56.39.

Finn Mattenson of Loma Linda Academy was 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:03.62 and 11th in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:06.62.

Division 3 swim highlights

Citrus Belt League teams from Yucaipa and Beaumont competed in the Division 3 finals at Mt. SAC.

Hunter Tamura of Yucaipa finished eighth in the boys’ 200-yard individual medley in 1:58.71 and Beaumont’s boys 4X50-yard freestyle relay team of Joseph Tyree, Eric Zhang, Micah Araiza and Micah Yleah placed fifth in 1:29.83.

Yucaipa’s Peighton Lahren finished 10th in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle in 25.17 and swam a leg on the Thunderbirds’ 4X100-yard freestyle relay with Sofia Stacks, Malina Neal and Brooklyn Ballard, finishing 10th in 3:48.14.