From March 18, 2025, to March 20, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) swim team competed in the highly anticipated 16th annual Ventura County Swimming Championships meet. The girls and boys teams both swam fiercely, the girls winning fourth overall out of 19 schools, and the boys earning a solid 11th out of 17 teams.
Girls Preliminaries
The first day of the meet welcomed the preliminaries for the girls division, where the Dragon’s swimmers Rihanna Samples ‘25, Cynthia Hu ‘26, Mikaela Clabaugh ‘25 and Caroline Vanderkooij ‘26 swam in the 200-yard medley relay to start off the day. The girls had a fifth-place overall time of 2:06.34, unable to overtake Ventura High School (Ventura) who took first place with a time of 1:54.17.
The meet continued without any disqualifications, with Hu gaining second place in the 200-yard freestyle with the time of 1:56.94, Clabaugh placing fifth in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) with 2:29.95, Vanderkooij earning sixth in the 50-yard freestyle and Larissa Myers ’26 placing 10th in the 100-yard freestyle. Despite the long day, the girls did not slow down, as Hu gained third place in the 500-yard freestyle, the Dragons placed seventh in the 200-yard freestyle relay, Samples placed 16th in the 100-yard backstroke, Clabaugh earned 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke and finally the combined effort of Vanderkooij, Samantha Roberts ’27, Myers and Hu resulted in second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:56.80.
Boys Preliminaries
The boys preliminaries met a slightly different ending than the girls but still competed with vigor. The day once again started off with the 200-yard medley relay where the efforts of Kylan Jaeger ’26, Aiden Cumming ’25, Gavin Ingold ’27 and Connor Morris ’27 gained 10th place. The tides turned against the Dragons when they placed near last in the 200-yard freestyle, and could not qualify for finals in the event. Foothill Tech met a similar end in the 200-yard IM with Ingold earning 19th place, Cumming placing 21st in the 50-yard freestyle, Ingold earning 17th in the 100-yard butterfly and Morris placing 22nd in the 100-yard freestyle with the time of 55.25.
However, Kylan Jaeger ‘26 brought Foothill Tech a win in the 500-yard freestyle where he gained ninth place with a time of 5:22.95 and qualified for the finals. Despite this small victory, an early takeoff in the 200-yard freestyle relay disqualified Foothill Tech from that event meaning they were not allowed to participate in that event in finals. Jaeger took 19th place in the 100-yard backstroke and Cumming swam the 100-yard breastroke in 1:13.03, earning him 19th place. Finally, to end their day, the Dragons qualified for finals in the 400-yard freestyle relay in ninth place with a time of 3:46.64.
Championship Finals
The championship finals combined both the girls and boys divisions on March 20, 2025. The girls fought for their place gaining sixth in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:06.11. The boys placed ninth for the same event swimming it in 1:52.46. In the 200-yard freestyle, Hu gained fourth place with a personal best time of 1:55.50, and Clabaugh earned fourth in the 200-yard IM with another personal best of 2:26.93.
Throughout the day, Vanderkooij placed seventh in the 50-yard freestyle, Myers placed 11th in the 100-yard freestyle, and Hu placed third in the 500-yard freestyle. The boys also competed in the 500-yard freestyle, with Jaeger achieving ninth place, with the personal best time of 5:14.47. The girls continued to compete, with the efforts of Vanderkooij, Roberts, Sadie Lagerquist ’26 and Clabaugh earning fifth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:50.89. Samples placed 12th in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:12.07 and Clabaugh placed 13th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:21.31. Finally, to end off the day, the girls placed third and the boys ninth in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The Dragons made consideration for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) with their times in the girls 200-yard freestyle relay, girls 400-yard freestyle relay, and the boys 400-yard freestyle relay dropped 10 seconds to make a CIF automatic cut. The boys team gained 45 points and the girls won 167 during the meet.
After the meet Conor Morris ‘27 spoke on the results for Foothill Tech, saying “The girls did really great at the meet placing fourth overall out of some huge schools, and our boys won both relays in the consolation finals. A lot of us improved our personal best times and made cuts for CIF, which are the main goals.”
The Foothill Tech swim and dive team will continue to compete in meets in order to gain the required times to qualify for CIF. The Dragons’ next league meet will be on April 18, 2025, at Cate School.
