Poly reigns supreme at Moore League girls swimming finals

LONG BEACH >> The stakes were high and the Moore League crown was up for grabs at the girls swimming championship meet at Cabrillo High School on Thursday night.

Races were intense, records were shattered, and that got the crowd excited to make the night electric. The race for the Moore League title was neck and neck between Long Beach Poly and Wilson, as it was last year, but Poly wrote a new script by totaling 505 points and eaing a 56-point victory over the second-place Bruins to claim the title.

“This is a fantastic feeling,” said Poly coach Kalani Caldwell after the victory. “It takes a team of girls and everybody did what they had to do tonight.”

After the victory, Caldwell celebrated by jumping in the pool with her team to cap off the night.

“We’ve seen Wilson celebrate a victory year after year,” said Caldwell. “The pool felt great tonight and it was a great experience for us.”

The night started off just the way the Jackrabbits wanted it to when the relay team of Fion Quach, Isabella Magalong, Anja Oca, and Sarrana Quach broke the 200-yard medley relay meet record with a time of 1 minute, 48.48 seconds. The time was good enough to qualify for the state meet. Their record time erased the previous record set by the 2005 Wilson relay team, which included Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy.

The Bruins hung tough in the begiing and middle of the meet, led by junior Mia Tedesco, who placed first in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Her 50 freestyle time of 23.59 was a meet record, breaking the previous time of 23.77 set by Poly’s Savaa Steffen in 2013.

Wilson trailed by 10 points entering the 100 breaststroke, but this is where Poly’s depth came into play and gave them the cushion it needed. Junior Isabella Magalong and sophomore Fion Quach finished one and two in the event and sealed the deal going into the final race.

“I knew we were going to be okay today because of our breaststrokers and they were amazing tonight,” said Caldwell. “They got us 64 points in that race alone to give us the edge.”

The Poly relay team which set the medley relay record in the begiing of the meet, capped off the meet with an exclamation point and another meet record in the 400 freestyle relay.

Lakewood finished in a close third with 405 total points, led by freshman distance swimmer, Maely Lawrence. She finished first in the 200 and 500 freestyle with times of 1:55.08 and 5:07.92, respectively.

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CIF Southe Section qualifying begins next week.