Prep swimming: Banner day for Elkingtons, Eagles at Clovis West Invite
Matt Elkington supplanted three Clovis West High School swimming legends on a banner day for the Elkington family, in particular, and the Golden Eagles overall at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex.
Elkington set three meet records and broke a 23-year-old school record, while sister Skylar Elkington won once individually and as part of a meet record-breaking relay team as the host Golden Eagles won boys and girls team titles Saturday at the 30th annual Clovis West Invitational swimming and diving meet.
Matt Elkington, a UC Santa Barbara-bound senior, broke meet records in the 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle, and 50 free. Swimmers are allowed to compete in only two individual events, but his leadoff split in the 200 free relay was recorded as the new 50 free record.
It’s a big deal to me. I’ve been chasing after these records all four years I’ve been swimming here.
Clovis West senior Matt Elkington after setting Clovis West Invite records for the 100 fly and 100 and 50 free
Elkington entered the 100 fly with a seed time (49.45 seconds) faster than the 2014 meet record of former Golden Eagles and current Arizona swimmer Justin Wright (50.20), then swam an All-America 48.57 in the final.
In the 100 free, Elkington entered seeded second behind St. Igantius-San Francisco’s Sheldon Bobhoff, whose seed time of 45.40 was better than former Clovis West/Cal swimmer Josh Daniels’ meet record of 45.54 in 2006. Elkington then went out and not only beat Bobhoff, but won in a record and All-America 45.05. That time was also faster than the school record 45.25 set by multiple-time All-America and former Michigan swimmer Chris Rumley in 1993.
Then to cap his day, Matt Elkington swam a leadoff split of 20.77 in the 200 free relay to top ex-Golden Eagle/USC swimmer Jeff Daniels’ 2007 meet record of 21.04 in the 50 free, and was the anchor of the winning 400 free relay in an All-America consideration 3:08.26. Elkington was the Male Swimmer of the Meet.
“It’s a big deal to me,” Elkington said. “I’ve been chasing after these records all four years I’ve been swimming here. I’m most excited because it shows my future teammates at UCSB that I’m ready to swim and compete with them.”
Skylar Elkington, a junior, won the 50 free in an All-America consideration time of 23.71 and was the anchor of the 400 free relay that topped Clovis West’s 2010 meet record of 3:31.19 in an All-America consideration mark of 3:30.94.
“It was awesome,” Skylar Elkington said. “We just did the best we could with what we had left.”
Female Swimmers of the Meet honors went to Clovis senior Jillian Hatch and freshman teammate Averee Preble.
Hatch won the 200 free (1:52.27) and the 500 free (5:03.43), signaling a restart to a career that got off to a sensational start when she captured two gold medals during her freshman season, but tailed off the past two years.
“It was nice because I was nervous coming in,” Hatch said. “The past two years haven’t been what I wanted. I just wasn’t going faster, and it was frustrating. I’m definitely looking foward to Valley.”
Preble captured the 100 fly in an All-America consideration time of 55.60 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.09. And they were both members of second-place teams in the 200 medley (1:51.87) and 400 free (3:36.66) relays.
“My 100 fly was kind of shocking,” Preble said. “I was very happy with that time.”
Clovis West’s Lane Hunter won the 200 individual medley in 1:58.54 to help the Golden Eagles’ boys score 421 points. Bellarmine-San Jose was second with 354.
Other area boys who won events included Clovis’ Zach Koch in the 50 free (21.69), teammate Graham Hauss in the 500 free (4:41.40), and those two plus Jesse Serpa and Seth Nabors in the 200 free relay, which swam an All-America consideration 1:26.17
Caitlyn Snyder won the 200 IM in 2:09.40 for the Clovis West girls, who outscored Westlake-Westlake Village 443-398 in the team race.
Clovis West also swept Friday’s diving competition, with Justin White edging teammate Colby Evangelinos 409.35-405.85 for the boys title, and Randi Berg beating Arroyo Grande’s Anna Perry 369.85-348.70 on the girls side.
Nick Giannandrea: 559-441-6103, @NickG_FB
CLOVIS WEST INVITATIONAL
BOYS
200 medley relay: 1. Westlake (Cooper Fuchs, Ethan Ng, Nicholas Zhang, Jeremy Marcin) 1:40.76; 2. Clovis West 1:40.94; 3. Buchanan 1:41.66.
200 freestyle: 1. Sheldon Boboff, St. Ignatius College, 1:43.70; 2. Jacob Robets, Clovis Wet, 1:44.43; 3. Ryan Lewis, Bellarmine College Prep, 1`:45.93.
200 IM: 1. Hunter Lee, Clovis West, 1:58.54; 2. Peter Lewczyk, St. Ignatius College Prep, 1:58.69; 3. Thomas Vandiver, Buchanan, 1:59.07.
50 freestyle: 1. Zach Koch, Clovis, 21.69; 2. Thomas Reed, Bellarmine College Prep, 21.70; 3. Cooper Fuchs, Westlake, 21.75.
100 butterfly: 1. Matt Elkington, Clovis West, 48.57; 2. Zach Koch, Clovis, 51.31; 3. Nathan Yates, Bellarmine College Prep, 51.67.
100 freestyle: 1. Matt Elkington, Clovis West, 45.05; 2. Sheldon Boboff, St. Ignatius College Prep, 46.61; 3. Thomas Reed, Bellarmine College Prep, 46.93.
500 freestyle: 1. Graham Hauss, Clovis, 4:41.40; 2. Hunter Lane, Clovis West, 4:45.86; 3. Isaac Younglund, Clovis North, 4:42.72.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Clovis (Graham Hauss, Jesse Serpa, Seth Nabors, Zach Koch) 1:26.17; 2. Clovis West 1:26.22; 3. Bellarmine College Prep 1:27.93
100 backstroke: 1. Nathan Yates, Bellarmine College Prep, 53.38; 2. Julio Alcantar, Liberty-Bakersfield, 53.73; 3. Preston Mayer, Clovis West, 54.61.
100 breaststroke: 1. Ethan Ng, Westlake, 1:00.16; 2. Tanner Davis, Clovis East, 1:00.40; 3. Michael Hart, Liberty-Bakersfield, 1:01.05.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Clovis West (Jacob Roberts, Craig McCoy, Preston Mayer, Matt Elkington) 3:08.23; 2. Clovis 3:09.31; 3. Bellarmine College Prep 3:16.45.
Team scores: 1. Clovis West 421; 2. Bellamine 354; 3. Westlake 274; 4. Clovis North 270; 5. Clovis 259; 6. Buchanan 216; 7. Liberty-Bakersfield 132; 8. St. Ignatius 128.
GIRLS
200 medley relay: 1. Westlake (Melanie Zhang, Kahterine Chang, Sarah Georgian, KP Peters) 1:5078; 2. Clovis 1:51.87; 3. Clovis West 1:52.01.
200 freestyle: 1. Jillian Hatch, Clovis, 1:52.27; 2. Kassidy Lemminn, Frontier, 1:53.32; 3. Hannah Parson, Arroyo Grande, 1:57.46.
200 IM: 1. Caitlyn Snyder, Clovis West, 2:09.48; 2. Jenna Faran, Westlake, 2:10.23; 3. Jessica Chen, Westlake, 2:15.79.
50 freestyle: 1. Skylar Elkington, Clovis West, 23.93; 2. Sarah Clarke, Westlake, 24.71; 3. Tenny Feigel, Sanger, 24.78.
100 butterfly: 1. Averee Preble, Clovis, 55.60; 2. Skylar Elkington, Clovis West, 56.87; 3. Stephanie Bartel, Buchanan, 57.24.
100 freestyle: 1. Ariane Skeggs, Frontier, 52.92; 2. Elena England, Westlake, 52.94; 3. Hannah Parson, Arroyo Grande, 53.83.
500 freestyle: 1. Jillian Hatch, Clovis, 5:03.43; 2. Ariane Skeggs, Frontier, 5:05.31; 3. Emily Yuan, Westlake, 5:19.65.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Westlake (Jenna Farfan, Jessica Chen, KP Peters) 1:41.88; 2. Clovis West 1:42.50; 3. Sanger 1:42.56.
100 backstroke: 1. Elena England, Westlake, 57.76; 2. Stephanie Bartel, Buchanan, 58.69; 3. Caitlin Ryan, Westlake, 59.40.
100 breaststroke: 1. Averee Prebole, Clovis, 1:07.09; 2. Caitlyn Snyder, Clovis West, 1:07.84; 3. Megan Ridenour, Redwood, 1:07.90.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Clovis West (Abby Samansky, Caitlyn Snyder, Sarah Snyder, Skylar Elkington) 3:30.94; 2. Clovis 3:32.48; 3. Westlake 3:36.94.
Team scores: 1. Clovis West 443; 2. Westlake 398; 3. Clovis 320; 4. Arroyo Grande 220; 5. Clovis North 206; 6. Sanger 125; 7. Frontier 118; 8. Buchanan 117.
FRIDAY’S DIVING
BOYS
1. Justin White, Clovis West, 409.35; 2. Colby Evangelinos, Clovis West, 405.85; 3. Dominic Carollo, Bellarmine-San Jose, 358.95; 4. Marcos Garcia, Buchanan, 322.85; 5. Lucas Brumm, Clovis North, 300.65; 6. Loto Leilaimafato, Sanger, 298.80; 7. C.J. Paolilli, Buchanan, 291.95; 8. Trevor Quezada, Arroyo Grande, 290.55; 9. Logan Tobias, Clovis West, 281.30; 10. Jaxon Carreno, Clovis, 276.30.
GIRLS
1. Randi Berg, Clovis West, 369.85; 2. Anna Perry, Arroyo Grande, 348.70; 3. Tori Funk, Clovis West, 345.55; 4. Molly Borders, Clovis North, 340.20; 5. Shelbee Avelino, Arroyo Grande, 337.65; 6. Gillian Garcia, Liberty, 337.0; 7. Claire Nevosh, Clovis West, 325.75; 8. Savannah Uhlir, Clovis East, 324.75; 9. Paige Le, Buchanan, 318.65; 10. Ashley Vitale, Clovis North, 302.50.
This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Prep swimming: Banner day for Elkingtons, Eagles at Clovis West Invite."