WALNUT — With Orange County’s established stars still riding their jet stream Thursday, a few future swimmers to watch earned the spotlight at the CIF-SS Division 1 preliminaries at Mt. SAC.
Fountain Valley’s Alyssa Ton and Newport Harbor’s Connor Ohl raced to the front.
Ton, a sophomore, matched three-time O.C. swimmer of the year Teagan O’Dell of Santa Margarita by qualifying first in two girls events for Saturday’s noon finals.
Ohl, a junior, claimed the top seed in the 50 free after last week becoming only the second county boy to ever break 20 seconds in the two-lap sprint.
In the team competition, Santa Margarita’s boys and girls positioned themselves well for title defenses but Ton and Ohl offered some emerging speed.
“Alyssa has got a lot of potential,” Fountain Valley coach Nathan Wilcox said. “She’s probably that next star that you’re looking for. She’s doing some things that are really special.”
Ohl certainly has. Last week at the Sunset League finals, he won the 50 free in an eye-popping 19.79 seconds.
“Big-time water polo player but he’s also a big-time swimmer,” Newport Harbor co-coach Kevin Potter said. “He loves to race.”
Ton challenged her lifetime-best time in the 200-yard freestyle by clocking a time of 1 minute, 45.71 seconds.
Last week at the Sunset League final, Ton clocked a personal-best 1:44.50 to move to No. 5 all-time in county history. She clocked the time the same day that O’Dell set the county record in the middle-distance event with a 1:42.98.
In the 500 free, Ton blazed a lifetime-best and county-leading 4:44.54 that ranks her 11th in county history.
Ton was pleased with both times but hopes to be even faster Saturday.
“I’m very excited,” she said. “I want to see how close I can get to 4:40 (in the 500 free) and if I can go 1:43 in the 200.”
Ton trains under Wilcox with the Irvine Novaquatics. She has polished her stroke technique with plenty of hard work, including twice a day practices.
“I wasn’t the best trainer but after learning to just go all out in practice — destroy myself — I really see the improvement,” Ton said. “I’m dead tired (after practice).”
Ohl qualified first in the 50 free in 20.39, six-tenths of a second off his time last week.
Ohl joined Olympian Michael Cavic of Tustin as the only county boy to ever break 20 seconds. Cavic pulled the feat three times in 2002.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Ohl said of his 19.79. “Going that fast, it was a … dream but it happened. I just put my head down and sprinted as hard as I could. I just wanted to bring glory to Newport.”
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Ohl credits his speed to training long course for the short-course races in high school.
“All I’m doing is going as hard as I can every morning with Newport long course (at Estancia),” Ohl said. “That’s how we’re getting so fast.”
Ohl later led off the Sailors’ 200 free relay with a 20.30. He also qualified sixth in the 100 free in 45.24.
O’Dell blasted top-qualifying times in the 200 individual medley (1:54.73) and 100 back (51.98) in county-leading times. The Cal-bound senior touched about one second off her Division 1 record in the IM and half-a-second off her dorsal standard.
O’Dell also led of the 400 free relay in a county-leading 49.12, almost half-a-second ahead of Ton.
Santa Margarita’s girls, who are seeking an 11th consecutive Division 1 title, also received a burst of speed from Gracyn Aquino. She qualified first in the 50 free (22.85) and second in 100 free (49.58). Teammate Chloe Stinson touched a close-second in the 50 free (23.02).
Northwood’s duo of seniors Derek Hitchens and Andrew Maksymowski both qualified first in two events.
The Columbia-bound Hitchens swept the 100 free (county-leading 44.37) and 100 backstroke (49.24) while the Texas-bound Maksymowski earn the No. 1 seeds in the 200 (1:36.76) and 500 (4:26.28) free.
Santa Margarita’s boys, who are seeking a fifth consecutive title, posted several time drops in showing their depth.
In the 200 IM, the Eagles’ Bennett Korner, Taylor Thongintra and Amir Ali all qualified for the finals at fifth, eighth ninth, respectively. Korner, a junior, dropped about a second to touch in 1:50.43.
Mater Dei’s Elonzo Santos (100 breast 54.26) and Tesoro’s Liam Mulroy (100 fly 49.31) also qualified first.
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