RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. – Junior Ava Chavez won two events, set three St. Francis program records and eclipsed a meet record to highlight a crew of Troubies at the California Catholic Challenge, hosted by Santa Margarita High School Saturday. Chavez won both the 100-yard butterfly and breaststroke events, while leading off both SFHS freestyle relay squads.
Chavez began her meet with a winning 54.96 in the 100 free, surpassing the old meet record of 55.60 and eclipsing the 24-year-old previous school benchmark of 55.70, set by Katie Younglove in 1998. She followed with a leadoff split of 51.41 in the 400 free relay, surpassing Sydney Johnson's old mark of 51.66 from 2011.
The Granite Bay product then followed with a third school record in her win in the 100 breast, touching home at 1:04.14 to surpass Karen Frazier's old Troubie standard of 1:04.44, set in 2006.
Chavez nearly broke a fourth record as well: her leadoff split in the 200 free relay came in at 23.92, a mere three hundredths of a second behind the SFHS benchmark of 23.89, set by Alex Rieger in 2011.
Chavez, Erica Jaffe, Ava Stimson and Greta Laborde Lagrave compiled a 1:39.78 in the event, good for third place and 32 more points toward the team scoring. The 400 free relay squad of Chavez, Jaffe, Mia Hill and Megan Gawlick also took third at 3:36.91. The Troubies added a fifth in the medley relay, with Alexis DeAngelis, Chavez, Hill and Laborde Lagrave posting a 1:58.72.
Jaffe added a second-place showing in the 100 backstroke at 56.48, four tenths behind SMHS winner Teia Salvino.
Impressively, St. Francis scored 263 team points despite fielding eight total swimmers and no more than two entrants in any given event. Chavez scored 40 on her own with the two individual wins, while the three relays contributed 92 of those points.
In all, Chavez has set or contributed to six school records in the 2022 season: the three on Saturday plus the 400 free relay (3:29.08), 200 free relay (1:36.15) and 200 freestyle (1:50.07) from last week's Delta League championship.
As the name suggests, the California Catholic Challenge featured some of the top Catholic school programs from around the state. On the girls' side, host Santa Margarita won the team standings, with Archibishop Mitty (447) and Mater Dei (334) placing second and third. Loyola won the boys' competition with 619 points, just ahead of SMHS' 592. Mitty (326) and Mater Dei (263) took the next two places, respectively.
St. Francis resumes its postseason run with the Sac-Joaquin Section trials and finals on May 5 and 7. Both sessions take place at Tokay High School in Lodi. Tickets for the meet will be available on the GoFan website and app.
2022 CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC CHALLENGE
Santa Margarita High School (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.)
Results with SFHS entrants only • Winner plus SFHS finishers listed
GIRLS TEAM SCORING - 1. Santa Margarita, 751; 2. Archbishop Mitty, 447; 3. Mater Dei, 334; 4. St. Francis, 263; 5. Moreau Catholic, 107.
GIRLS 200 MEDLEY RELAY - 1. Santa Margarita 'B' (Abrajan, Levine, Stinson, Lin), 1:46.20… 5. St. Francis (DeAngelis, Chavez, Hill, Laborde Lagrave), 1:58.72.
GIRLS 200 FREESTYLE - 1. Audrey Lee, SMHS, 1:53.96… 6. Megan Gawlick, 2:00.53; 8. Greta Laborde Lagrave, 2:03.15.
GIRLS 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY - 1. Asia Kozan, SMHS, 2:02.73… 6. Mia Hill, 2:14.96.
GIRLS 50 FREESTYLE - 1. Macky Hodges, SMHS, 22.87… 10. Ava Stimson, 26.83; 11. Alexis DeAngelis, 27.59.
GIRLS 100 BUTTERFLY - 1. Ava Chavez, St. Francis, 54.56.
GIRLS 100 FREESTYLE - 1. Teia Salvino, SMHS, 49.36… 7. Ava Stimson, 58.28.
GIRLS 500 FREESTYLE - 1. Asia Kozan, SMHS, 4:57.04… 6. Megan Gawlick, 5:23.85; 12. Alexis DeAngelis, 6:02.43.
GIRLS 200 FREE RELAY - 1. Santa Margarita (Salvino, Aquino, Hodges, Ervin), 1:33.34… 3. St. Francis (Chavez, Jaffe, Stimson, Laborde Lagrave), 1:39.78.
GIRLS 100 BACKSTROKE - 1. Teia Salvino, SMHS, 56.07… 2. Erica Jaffe, 56.48; 8. Greta Laborde Lagrave, 1:03.39.
GIRLS 100 BREASTSTROKE - 1. Ava Chavez, St. Francis, 1:04.14… 7. Erica Jaffe, 1:10.14; 8. Mia Hill, 1:10.40.
GIRLS 400 FREE RELAY - 1. Santa Margarita 'A' (Aquino, Salvino, Hodges, Ervin), 3:24.53… 3. St. Francis (Chavez, Jaffe, Hill, Gawlick), 3:36.91.
