Royals crowned D3 champs
Quartz Hill girls take 1st, boys 7th at CIF-SS D3 Finals
The Quartz Hill girls swim team won its second CIF-Southern Section Championship on Friday, winning the Division 3 title at Mt. San Antonio College.
The Royals won two relay races, the 200 medley relay (junior Bethany Burga, freshmen Anya Juliano, Magnolia Ahking and Bailey Nickols) and the 400 freestyle relay (Burga, senior Isabelle Drossel, Ahking and Nickols), which was the final event of the meet.
Quartz Hill was trailing by 1.5 points overall entering the 400 free relay.
“I’m so proud of my team,” Burga said. “We grabbed the win. We accomplished what we wanted and we worked hard for it. I’m glad we got to achieve it and it’s just amazing being D3 champs.”
Quartz Hill had four individuals finish in the top five of their championship finals, one swimmer qualify for the State Championship and the Quartz Hill boys finished seventh overall.
“That was really special,” Quartz Hill coach
Brian Reed said. “Good season. This is just icing on the cake right here.
“It was surreal. It was really just a good experience. I knew we had a good, talented squad all year. I didn’t know how good we were going to be. After the Meet of Champions at Mt. SAC, that was two weeks before Golden League Finals, I started going back and looking at the times from D3 last year and I noticed we would have won D3 last year with the times we just had right there. At that point, I started thinking there was an opportunity.”
The championship by the Quartz Hill girls team was the first CIF championship for Reed as a coach.
The Quartz Hill girls finished with 181.5 points, while Archer School for Girls (154) was second, Costa Mesa (144.5) was third and South Torrance (144) was fourth.
The Quartz Hill girls 200 medley relay team of Burga, Juliano, Ahking and Nickols finished first with a time of one minute and 50.20 seconds, a state consideration time. It was also a new school and Golden League record.
South Torrance (1:54.24) was second and
Costa Mesa (1:55.79) was third.
“It was surreal. It was also like what you worked for and you finally achieved it,” Burga said. “It was like a relief. We knew we could do it and we did it. It was just an amazing experience.”
Burga also finished third in the 100 backstroke with a state consideration time of 57.39, breaking her own school and league record set earlier this year (57.76).
Burga qualified for the CIF State Championship, which starts Friday at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex, starting at 10 a.m., becoming the second female swimmer from the Antelope Valley to qualify for the State Championship and the third swimmer overall.
Quartz Hill’s Cody Kewley was the first in 2016 and Quartz Hill’s Emily Drossel was the first girl, qualifying in 2019 and 2022.
“Honestly, it’s been a goal I’ve been trying to reach since my sophomore year, so I finally got there,” Burga said. “It’s just amazing. I’ve always wanted to swim at State and I get the privilege to. I was fortunate enough to.”
Burga finished fifth in the 200 freestyle (1:55.93).
Burga was also a member of the 400 free relay team, along with Drossel, Ahking and Nickols, that won the final event of the meet with a time of 3:40.57, breaking their own school and league record set at the prelims (3:41.58). The previous record of 3:42.61 was set in 2004 by Quartz Hill’s Molly Rogers, Alyssa Wilson, Christa Ratcliff and Sarah Colvin.
Archer finished second with a time of 3:47.65.
Reed said the Royals trailed by 1.5 points going into the last relay and the Royals’ 400 free relay was six seconds ahead of the second-place team.
“I knew if we came first or second, we had this,” Reed said. “My concern and my heart was just racing, as long they weren’t going to DQ, we had it in the bag. As the girls were walking to the blocks, we all yelled at them ‘Good luck.’ You could tell that they were calm. They had no nervousness in them. I knew we were going to do it right there. They were well prepared. They wanted it and they went out and got what they deserved. They worked hard for it all year. It was really awesome.” Nickols had two top-five finishes. She was second in the 100 free with a state consideration time of 52.35, while Xavier Prep sophomore Ava Atteson was first (51.79). Drossel finished 12th (56.45).
Nickols broke the school and league record set by Drossel in 2022. The old record was 52.66.
Nickols was third in the 50 free with a
state consideration time of 24.43. Drossel tied for 17th (26.21).
Ahking finished 11th in the 100 butterfly and was second in the consolation race with a time of 1:01.70. Ahking was also 17th in the 100 backstroke (1:06.10).
Juliano was 15th in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the consolation race with a time of 1:12.13.
“We had a great support system,” Burga said. “All of us believed in each other. We practice a lot, thanks to coach Reed. We focused on our relay dives, on our turns and everything. We were perfecting everything, so we had each other’s backs. We knew our weaknesses. We knew our strengths. That made the team closer and brought us the win.”
Reed said when the psych sheets were released, the Quartz Hill relays were No. 1 and the Royals were in the top five of a lot of events.
“We had a really good shot of doing that,” Reed said. “We sat down and talked as a team, made sure we were in all the right events.
“At Prelims, I told the girls, told the guys too, ‘You can’t win a championship on Wednesday, but you can lose one. Just make sure we get back to the Finals. Make sure we do that.’
“The kids did amazing on Wednesday. I was so proud of them at Prelims, not just with the records, but just where they finished. Coming into Friday, I told them, ‘We’re going to have a couple of bad swims. We just have to get over that and do that.’ We had one or two swims that we would like to have back, but it was surreal.”
The Quartz Hill girls won the Division 4 championship in 2004 and the Royals’ previous highest finish in Division 3 was fifth in 2022 with 104 points.
The Quartz Hill boys were seventh overall with a score of 129 points. Bonita (171) finished first, followed by Peninsula (156), Flintridge Prep (150), Oak Park (145), Bishop Montgomery (139) and Cate (135.5).
It was the highest finish and point total for the Quartz Hill boys team.
“You could see the trends going up,” Reed said. “It’s going in the right direction.”
The Quartz Hill boys 200 medley relay team of sophomores Xander Martin and Conner Alvarez, freshman Ian Venegas Fielder and junior Kristian Loza finished third with a time of 1:38.68.
It is the highest finish the Royals have had in Division 3 and the time was a new school record and third fastest time in league history.
The Quartz Hill 400 free relay team of Alvarez, senior Almos Petho, Venegas Fielder and Loza was eighth (3:21.89).
Alvarez also had two top-10 individual finishes.
“One, is my hard work and No. 2 is the people around me,” Alvarez said. “Everybody is always pushing me. My coaches are pushing me, teammates,
parents. They’ve always inspired me to go faster and I’ve always pushed myself.”
Alvarez was fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a state consideration time of 57.75 and 10th in the 200 individual medley and first in the consolation finals with a time 1:59.90.
His time in the 100 breaststroke broke his own school and league record he set at the prelims (57.86).
Alvarez is the first Golden League swimmer to break the two-minute mark in the 200 IM since Littlerock’s Benjamin Skelding in 2011 (1:58.37).
“I feel really good,” Alvarez said. “I felt really good. From coming back last year and not being as high as I was to dropping three seconds from my past CIF time, feels really good, placing in a finals, fourth place.
“From my 200 IM, it felt unreal that I was nablde to go under two minutes. I never experienced that before and I was really happy with that swim. My 100 breast, seeing that time, I was really ecstatic.”
Although he swam a consideration time in the 100 breaststroke, Alvarez acknowledges he likely won’t get to compete.
“I most likely will not swim, but I look forward to next year,” Alvarez said. “Not only do I expect to be pushed by myself, but I expect to be pushed from everybody else.
“There were a couple of guys there at CIF that I raced last year too and they’ve raised the bar really high too.”
The Quartz Hill girls medley relay team had a qualifying time for State, the first for a Quartz Hill relay team.
“We were really hoping Conner and Bailey could get in with their times,” Reed said.
Bailey is a seventh alternate and Conner is 18th.
“It’s quite an accomplishment to make it, because if you look at the times they’re absolutely insane and for us to be in that picture,” Reed said.
Martin finished 10th in the 100 butterfly and first in the consolation finals with time of 53.82. Fielder was 17th (55.41).
Martin’s time in the 100 butterfly beats his brother Alistaire’s time of 53.93 in 2019, but Alistaire was unable to compete his senior year due to COVID.
Martin was 10th in the 100 backstroke and first in the consolation finals (56.06). Loza was 17th (57.80).
Loza went from being a second alternate to competing in the race and setting a personal record.
The Quartz Hill boys 200 free relay team of sophomore Chase Stanford, Petho, Venegas Fielder and Loza finished 11th overall and second in the consolation finals with a time of 1:31.90.
Quartz Hill broke five Golden League records this season.