Five back to defend Central Section swimming championships

Five swimmers are back to defend Central Section Division I championships this weekend at Clovis West High.

Section preliminaries for swimming begin at 1 p.m. Friday. The finals start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday with top finishers advancing to the state meet May 18-19, also at Clovis West.

Returning to defend their section titles are: Abby Samansky of Clovis West (200-meter freestyle), Caitlyn Snyder of Clovis West (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Michael Jia of Clovis North (50 freestyle, 100 butterfly), Benjamin Forbes of Clovis North (100 freestyle) and Averee Preble of Clovis (500 freestyle).

The Clovis West girls and Clovis North boys are defending team champions.

The meet got underway Wednesday with boys diving, with Ky Duong of Buchanan winning. D-I Girls diving was Thursday.

The D-II swimming finals are Saturday at Bakersfield College. The Madera girls and Kingsburg boys are defending champions.

Baseball – Clovis West clinched a tie for the Tri-River Athletic Conference title with an 8-2 victory at Clovis on Tuesday.

A win Thursday against the Cougars would give the Golden Eagles an outright TRAC title for the first time since 2012.

Playoff pairings for baseball and softball will be announced Saturday in Porterville.

Other league outright champions: San Joaquin Memorial (County/Metro Athletic Conference), Fresno (North Yosemite League), Kerman (North Sequoia League) and Fowler (West Sequoia League).

Still to be decided is the West Yosemite League. Entering Thursday’s games, Redwood and El Diamante were tied for first place at 10-1.

In the Central Sequoia League, Selma, Kingsburg and Immanuel were 9-5.

In the East Yosemite League, Tulare Western was denied an outright title when Tulare Union defeated the Mustangs 1-0. Tulare Western will wait to see the outcome of Porterville’s game against Monache. The Panthers sat in second place at 9-4.

Softball – Top-ranked Clovis clinched an outright TRAC title with a 1-0 victory over Central on Tuesday.

Danielle Lung picked up her 21st win thanks to Kassie Puente’s RBI.

Other outright champions: Bullard (CMAC), Reedley (NYL), Monache (EYL), Sierra Pacific (East Sequoia League) and Fowler (West Sequoia).

Still to be decided is the West Yosemite League (Hanford West 10-2, Redwood 9-2), North Sequoia League (Chowchilla 7-2, Liberty-Madera Ranchos 7-2, Washington Union 6-3).

Track and field – The fields are set for the section Masters meet May 19 at Buchanan’s Veterans Memorial Stadium. The state meet is June 1-2 at Buchanan.

The Masters meet takes the top three finishers from area meets (North, Central and South) and the Sequoia/Sierra Division meet (all held this week) plus the next best six from those meets for a total of 18 entries per event.

Girls basketball – Clovis West junior guard Madison Campbell was named to the Cal-Hi Sports All-State Elite and Open Division first teams.

Campbell helped the Golden Eagles to their sixth straight section D-I title and the Open Division regional final, a year after Clovis West won the state title with a senior-dominated lineup.

Clovis North sophomore guard Rowan Hein was named to the Elite third team and Open second team.

Others recognized: Clovis West junior guard Champney Pulliam (Open fourth team), Clovis North sophomore guard Savannah Tucker (Open fourth team), Mission Oak senior guard Kambrayia Elzy (D-III first team), Clovis sophomore guard Avery Evans (D-III second team), Sierra Pacific senior guard Haley Bettencourt (D-V first team) and Sierra Pacific senior forward Kalea Bush (D-V first team).

Record watch – Central Section historian Bob Barnett noted Exeter junior Corinne Acosta has 69 hits and is closing in on the section single-season record of 71 set by Edison’s Nikki Schrey in 2005.

This story was originally published May 10, 2018 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Five back to defend Central Section swimming championships."