'Tis the Season OCC outswims Miramonte as Lamorinda's swim season begins
By Guy Dotan
Photo Doug Kohen
With the completion of the school year the season of summer sports promptly begins, swimming prominent among them. The Orinda Moraga Pools Association (OMPA) is one of our local recreational swim leagues; currently nine swim clubs from Orinda and Moraga participate in the league. Wednesday, June 17th, featured a meet between the Orinda Country Club (OCC) and the Miramonte Swim Club hosted by Miramonte at Miramonte High School.
OCC dominated the meet, finishing first in almost every event. However, the boy's 11-12 100 yard individual medley was won by Dylan Fara. The lone competitor in the event from Miramonte finished first against three OCC swimmers. Fara finished with a time of 1:14:47, securing a gold time for county. Finishing second, third, and fourth and all within one second of each other were Brian Haufler, Evan Pauletich, and Grayson Judge with times of 1:19:37, 1:19:44, and 1:19:75 respectively, all good enough for a silver time.
The term 'county' refers to the league tournament at the end of the year, in which all swimmers who achieved a gold time can participate. The gold, silver, and bronze standards are set each year and differ based on stroke, gender, and age level.
Charlie Wiser of OCC continued his success by finishing first in all three events in which he competed, boy's 13-14 50 yard breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly. Wiser recorded gold in all three events sporting a 28:40 in breast, 28:03 in back, and 26:18 in fly. At the age of 14, Wiser has second fastest time for all age groups in the 50 freestyle with a 23:16.
In the girl's 15-18 age group, Lauren Bugglin of Miramonte took first in both the freestyle and butterfly finishing with gold times of 25:35 and 27:17. While in breaststroke 15-year-old Megan Freeman of OCC took first with a silver time of 36:50 and Haley Honens of OCC took first in backstroke with a silver time of 32:50.
However, OMPA is more than just a competition to medal for county. The league is about developing skills for the future. "Our goal is to teach the kids life lessons through swimming. Learning to work hard and develop one's own ability is a talent within itself and is more important than individual race times. The numbers are more for the coaches to get an understanding of the swimmers' development" remarked Trevor Rose, head coach at Miramonte. "Seeing our last heat, farthest lane swimmer beat his time by two seconds is just as meaningful as seeing one of our swimmers make county."
OCC dominated the meet, finishing first in almost every event. However, the boy's 11-12 100 yard individual medley was won by Dylan Fara. The lone competitor in the event from Miramonte finished first against three OCC swimmers. Fara finished with a time of 1:14:47, securing a gold time for county. Finishing second, third, and fourth and all within one second of each other were Brian Haufler, Evan Pauletich, and Grayson Judge with times of 1:19:37, 1:19:44, and 1:19:75 respectively, all good enough for a silver time.
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA