GALT, CA (MPG) - The Sierra Valley Conference Swim Championships were held April 21-22 at the Gora Aquatic Center in Galt.

El Dorado High School girls won the League title and for the boys, Bradshaw Christian High School won.

Nevertheless, both Galt and Liberty Ranch boasted some stunning performances and will have individual swimmers moving on to sections and have high hopes for State qualifiers.

As the qualifiers prepared for sections this week, the Gora Aquatic pool went down and both teams had to travel to Lodi to practice. Many practice twice a day, before and after school, so this was a huge inconvenience and very gracious of Lodi High School.  

“These kids are proving their efforts every day by showing up to practice and showing that hard work does pay off, despite all the odds against us this year,” said head coach Kalah Westlynn, who was also named SVC Coach of the Year.

“We saw many of our athletes qualify to swim on Saturday in both consolation heats and finals heats. They are continuing to improve at every opportunity and I couldn’t be more honored to be their coach. We might not have won as a team but each one of them wins as an athlete by bettering themselves each and every day. Congrats, Liberty Ranch Swimmers on all your improvements this year.”

Liberty Ranch’s Men’s frosh/soph 200 Medley Relay qualified and Adam Behrmann, Flynn Rausser, LJ Munoz and Nicholas Ibanez-Garcia will be competing at sections.

The Hawk relay team of Alec Ortega, Flynn Rausser, and Landin and Lukas Espinoza will also be swimming.

Liberty Ranch’s Savanah Westlynn qualified for sections in both the 200 Free and 500 Free. Westlynn, with a 500 time of 5:13.39, finished her league race a good 45 seconds before the second-place finisher and her 200 finished 15 seconds before the next competitor. 

Hawk Luke Ortega took first and qualified in the 200 IM and the 100 Fly.

Warrior Levi McDonald, in a striking swim, beat his 500m time by almost 10 seconds at 5:19.51 and became League Champion by more than 11 seconds. McDonald also came in second place with his 50-Yard Freestyle sprint.

Galt’s Logan Rose took second place in the boys' 200 Yard Freestyle. 

The Warrior relay team of Jayden Tackett, Hayden Miller, Logan Rose and Levi McDonald took third place in the 200-yard Freestyle relay.