By Stephen Ramirez
steve.ramirez@langnews.com
@SteveRRamirez on Twitter
RIVERSIDE >> Sonora High School’s Taylor Ault and Arcadia’s Tenny Chong were two of the area’s top swimmers throughout this season and both lived up to the billing on Saturday.
Ault won the 200-yard and 500 freestyles and Chong the 50 free to highlight the area’s efforts at the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 swimming championships at Riverside City College.
La Canada’s Dane Bell and Sonora’s Simon Lamar were the other area winners, sharing the 500 free with a time of 4:29.63.
Ault used a late surge to win the 200 free, finishing in 1 minute, 46.07 seconds. Ayala’s Kenisha Liu (1:47), who led most of the race, was second.
“I’m a back-half swimmer,” Ault said. “It’s usually one of my strengths. I was just hoping I could keep going, and was happy I did.”
Ault was dominant in the 500, easily winning with a time of 4:43.46.
“It’s really good (to win CIF),” Ault said. “I won last year, and I had better times this year, so it feels really good.”
Chong was happy to win the 50 free for another reason.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Chong said. “When I was little, I always wanted to be like my brother, because he always won CIF. He’s like my role model and I’m glad I could match him.”
Chong, the top qualifier in the 50, led from start to finish with a time of 20.87. He was also fourth in the 100 backstroke (51.20).
“When I dove in (for the 50), I had my doubts,” Wong said. “After the turn, when I streamlined, I saw the guy on my right, and he was in front of my, but I’m really good the last 15 yards. It felt good.”
Bell was also fourth in the 200 free (1:41.44)
The Glendora girls team, which finished second to Crean Lutheran of Irvine in the team competition, has solid efforts from Catherine Sanchez, who was second in the 100 fly (0:54.51) and third in the 200 free (1:50.04); Jackie Basham, who was third in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.09), and Alexis Margett (54.73) and Gisel Olvera (56.35), who were third and fourth, respectively, in the 100 fly.
Other top performances by locals were South Pasadena’s Garrett Tse, who was fourth in the 200 individual medley (1:52.21); Damien’s Richie Campbell, who was fourth in the 50 free (21.31) and San Marino’s Javier Lopez, who was second in the 100 fly (49.85).
The Glendora girls also finished second in the 200 medley (1:46.12) and 200 free (1:36.92) relays.