The best swimmers and divers that each section of California has to offer are competing this weekend for the right to call themselves state champions. The 2018 CIF Swimming and Diving Championships get underway Friday and continue Saturday at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex in Fresno. 

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California’s unique playoff swimming system allows competitors to automatically qualify at their section championships. Additional athletes are added to the meet via “at-large” qualifying standards. The Southern Section receives the most automatic qualifiers with five per event.

Defending Champs Monte Vista, Oak Ridge Highlight Team Race

Since the CIF Championships include so many schools, the points are spread out greatly between teams. That said, only seven boys teams and four girls teams are slated to crack the 100-point threshold. 

Last year’s champions, Monte Vista (girls) and Oak Ridge (boys), will be in the hunt again. Based on the times put up at the section championship meets, they are both set to score in the top three. 

The boys and girls meets will play out differently. On the girls side, a loaded Santa Margarita team is the favorite by nearly 100 points over Monte Vista. Based on meet seeds, the Eagles are slated to rack up 285 total points. The battle between Saint Francis and Henry M. Gunn for third place is worth watching. 

For the boys, the meet will be much closer. Three schools are seeded within 15 points of each other. Bellarmine College Prep, Northwood, and Oak Ridge have a slight lead on the field. Northwood, out of Irvine, is favored by seven points in a meet that will likely come down to the final relay. 

Sancov Among Individual Standouts Who Can Double Up

The CIF Championships is a meet of stars. None are bigger than Northgate senior Alexei Sancov, who leads the way in the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. Tied as the nation’s best recruit, Sancov is set to stay in state and swim at Southern California next year. 

In his final high school meet, Sancov is within striking distance of Trey Freeman’s 200 freestyle record set earlier this year. Freeman set the national mark at 1:33.06 while swimming for his Chattanooga (TN) Baylor School team in February. Sancov enters the CIF Championships with a seed of 1:33.70. Less than two months ago, he swam 1:32.80 at a Texas sectional meet. 

The 500 freestyle should feature a closer race. Sancov and Texas commit Andrew Koustik are separated by less than a second. 

The girls meet features two multi-event top seeds. Santa Margarita sophomore Anicka Delgado and Monte Vista junior Zoie Hartman hold the top spot in both of their events. 

Hartman leads both the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke by a significant margin, making her a strong favorite to win those events. Delgado has some tighter races ahead of her in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. 

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A few others are vying for a chance to claim two state titles. Jonah Cooper and Ethan Hu lead in one event and are seeded second in the other. Cooper, from Foothill, follows Sancov in the 200 freestyle; meanwhile, Hu, out of the Harker School, sits behind California commit Chris Jhong in the 200 IM. Cooper and Hu lead the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, respectively.

For the girls, Amalie Fackenthal from Country Day sits atop the 100 freestyle but trails Delgado in the 50. Granite Bay’s Chloe Clark enters as the top seed in the 100 backstroke. She is matched against Hartman in the 200 IM. 

This weekend will also see a good competition on the boards. Remi Edvalson of Archbishop Mitty leads the girls and River Valley’s Rylan Little paces the boys. Adam and Tyler Wesson of Archbishop Mitty enter the meet seeded second and third.

Santa Margarita holds the national record for independent schools in the 400 freestyle relay. They are seeded just off last years record time. The 200 freestyle relay team will also have a shot at breaking the national record of 1:31.18 set in 2012.

The Eagles are seeded to win two girls relays and place third in the medley. On the boy’s side, Bellarmine College Prep is the favorite in the freestyle relays and Northwood is top-seed in the medley to open the meet. With points spread across so many teams, the relay points will play a crucial role in determining a champion.

Boys diving and the swimming prelims get underway Friday. The following day features girls diving and the swimming finals, which will begin at 2:30 PM PST. Full meet coverage can be found on FloSwimming.

2018 CIF Swimming & Diving Championships
Clovis Olympic Swim Complex - Clovis, California
May 18-19
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