First Del Rio League meet of the season and Coach Rojo was not disappointed. Swimming against Division 2 Cal Hi brought out the best from our top AquaDons. The Condors took the first 4 events, bringing the points total to 19-37. A slip on the only turn of the 50 Free swim put Jay Vera into 4th place, but Vincent Mejia put it all together to take second place and drop almost a full second from last week's time against Schurr HS. 

Jeremy Alonso, Gio Cabrera, and Ismael Juarez all had solid, technical swims that allowed them to max points against the single, first place finish from the Condors in the 100 Fly, 9-6. This was one of the four swims that the Dons won. David Tarazon and Jay Vera, making good on that 50 Free slip, took that momentum into the 100 Free, finishing 1-2 and winning the event 10-6. Both swimmers putting up times equal to their overall best from last season. 

Although the 500 Free was a 4-12 loss*, both Michael Matchan and Jeremy Alonso also swam near their personal bests. Matchan faced two Cal Hi swimmers that dropped the hammer and swam under 5:15's, which would motivate him later on in the meet. Matchan and Alonso immediately joined Tarazon and Vera to take 1st place in the 200 Free Relay. The AquaDons would win the relay 10-4 with its B-Team wrapping up 3rd place.

 The 100 Back would see the AquaDons win the event 9-4 on a very rarely seen DQ. Both teams fielded 2 swimmers. At the start, the Condors took a half-body length lead through the first 65 yards, but David Tarazon made his move into the last turn, and beat the Cal swimmer with his first sub-60 backstroke of the season and within 2 seconds of his CIF time.  David's joyous celebration for his come from behind victory was a little too much for the Condor swimmer, who lost his composure for a moment, drawing a DQ from the meet referee. This turned the 8-10 loss into a 9-4 win for the AquaDons, and brought the score to 62-69, in favor of the Condors.

The next event would go the Condors way 6-10, increasing their lead to 68-79. And even though the Condors took the event 1-2, Michael Matchan went stroke for stroke with the second Cal Hi swimmer, and was just, and I mean JUST out touched. This will be one of the matchups I will be looking forward to at League Finals. The 400 Free Relay went 4-10 in Cal Hi's favor, bringing the meet to a 72-89 end. Good result for the AquaDons against a team competing two divisions higher in CIF. To put things into perspective, there are 170 total points to earn. If one team takes 1-3 in every individual event and 1-2 in every relay (technical rule), the score would be 140-30. A tie would be 85-85.

On a side note, the following swimmers "unofficially" made CONSIDERATION TIMES for Southern Section Division 4 CIF:

200 Medley Relay / 200 Free Relay / Jeremy Alonso (100 Fly and 500 Free) / David Tarazon (100 Free and 100 Back) / Michael Matchan (500 Free and 100 Breast). There were also a few others that were close... I'm looking at you Vincent Mejia, Jay Vera, and the 400 Free Relay Team. But everyone of these swimmers knows it's AUTO Times or bust!

*Maybe one day I'll tell you what this asterisk is for. But not today.