Southern California’s best swimmers come together this week at the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Ford Swimming Championships to compete for regional titles and a chance to move on to the state meet.

The CIF-Southern Sectionals run from Wednesday, May 9, to Saturday, May 12, at the Riverside Aquatic Complex in Riverside, CA. The top two of four divisions, Division 1 and 2, will swim their finals sessions Saturday.

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Since California is such a large state, the CIF split its member schools into 10 sections. The Southern Section encompasses the state’s southern counties but excludes the bottom two, which are sectioned for San Diego. Los Angeles is also not a part of the Southern Section.

Overall, the section includes over 500 schools. Sectional meet winners and qualifying finishers will advance to the CIF State Championships on May 18-19 at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex in Clovis.

The largest Southern Section schools compete in Division 1. Defending girls champion Santa Margarita is expected to repeat, as the Eagles are the top seed in all three relay events. On the boys side, no team is seeded to win more than one relay. The closest is Aliso Niguel, which is seeded first in the 400-yard freestyle relay and second in the others.

For the girls, multiple swimmers are seeded to have strong finishes in both of their individual events. USC signee Isabelle Odgers from Santa Margarita starts as the top seed in both the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. She will face some pressure from senior classmate Samantha Shelton, who’s seeded second, in the IM.

Eagles sophomores Anicka Delgado and Ella Ristic each lead an event and are in contention in another. Delgado will swim back-to-back in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. A top 20 recruit, Ristic is the No. 1 seed in the 100 freestyle and second in the 200 freestyle as she tries to defend her title from a year ago. Shelton will also be in the hunt for the 200 crown after winning a share of last year’s title.

Newport Harbor junior Ayla Spitz is another swimmer to watch as the top seed in the 200 freestyle and second in the 500 freestyle. Spitz won the 100 freestyle last year but will not attempt to defend her title.

For the boys, no swimmers are the top seeds in multiple events. Dana Hills senior Owen Kao leads the 200 and trails Indiana commit Michael Brinegar in the 500. Brinegar, from Tesoro, enters the meet with a 4:21 seed time, while Kao is the defending champion in the event.

The 100 freestyle matches Northwood’s Lou Shawn against Aliso Niguel’s Sean Slusiewicz. They are both seeded in the top three of their individual events.

Tesoro’s Jonathon Cheng holds the top spot in the 200 IM and enters on the third rung in the 100 breaststroke. Cheng is headed to the Ivy League to swim for Columbia next year.

At the top, Divisions 1 and 2 have comparable seed times. Combining boys and girls, Division 2 has the faster time in six individual events, while Division 1 leads the other 10.

Of the Division 2 swimmers leading the way, Crean Lutheran’s Elise Garcia and Los Osos’ Emily Trieu both have a top swim and another that is comparable. Garcia has the quickest seed time in the 50 freestyle and is 0.05 seconds off in the 100 butterfly. Trieu leads the backstroke and is right there in the 200 IM.

The Division 3 finals session gets underway at 5 PM PST on Thursday, May 10, and Division 4 competes in its finals session the following night at the same time. Division 2 will go off at 11 AM PST on Saturday, May 12, with Division 1 to follow at 4 PM PST.

All meet coverage can be found on FloSwimming.

CIF-Southern Section Ford Swimming Championships
May 9-12
Riverside Aquatic Complex - Riverside, California
Short Course Yards (SCY)
Psych Sheets
Division 1| Division 2 | Division 3 | Division 4