Mmm, swimming. I could use a good swim on Bakersfield's first 110-degree day of the year. Beat that heat with a quick read of today's Year in Review session at School House Zach.

2008-09 Kern County BOYS SWIMMING

Overview: The four horsemen (sailors?) of Kern County swimming this year were three from Stockdale — Dan Wickensheimer, Brian Collier and Jonathan Kim — and Randy Aakhus of Frontier. Between them, they won seven of the eight individual-event SWYL championships (plus Stockdale won two of three relays with those guys heavily featured, and four Central Section championships. At the section meet in Porterville, Wickensheimer won the 50-yard freestyle and the 100 butterfly and Kim won the 100 backstroke for the Mustangs. Aakhus was first and Collier fourth in the 200 individual medley, which featured four automatic All-American times.
That left Stockdale clearly as the best team around. The Mustangs finished third in the section after going unbeaten in local meets. Also give credit though to Garces, which has built quite the Division II powerhouse at a school with about 700 students. The Rams back-floated their way to the D-II title at Tulare this year, out-pacing Kingsburg by nearly 200 points, 376-185.
As for diving, the story was Centennial's Bryce Ogden, who was undefeated in section meets and didn't have any trouble winning the section with a 475.15 to second-place finisher Jacob Ruiz of Clovis East, who scored 437.10.

Best team: Certain schools just have monopolies in certain sports, and Stockdale's supremacy in swimming is reaching Bakersfield-in-wrestling levels of dominance. The Mustangs won the SWYL 413.5 to Centennial's 284 and rose to third place in the section behind the trio listed above and some depth from swimmers like Andy Castilleja and Even Szablowski that any other team would love to have. The Mustangs are still chasing Clovis West and the rest of the Clovis Unified schools with their Olympic-quality training facilities and tremendous support, but what they're doing is impressive nonetheless.
Honorable mention: Liberty, Garces, Centennial, Tehachapi

Best athlete: I'm using the word athlete because I think Bryce Ogden, the section-champion diver, deserves serious consideration here. Diving gets a bit overlooked in swimming; competitions are often on separate days, and divers train and compete by themselves, even though their points count towards the same cause. And so I'm going to take this rare opportunity to name a diver the best athlete here. Ogden dominated the section and did as a nice kid with a lot of confidence. That's saying something for a guy who grew up with a stutter and faced the taunting and teasing from peers that often goes along with it. Ogden was a gymnast as a youngster, and he took that acrobatic ability and transferred to the diving board. I'll take him over Californian Swimmer of the Year Dan Wickensheimer and the rest of the big four.
Honorable mention: Dan Wickensheimer, Stockdale; Randy Aakhus, Frontier; Jonathan Kim, Stockdale; Brian Collier, Stockdale; Justin Kraetsch, Liberty; Logan Peeples, Centennial

Best event: The SEYL meet at McMurtrey Aquatic Center came down to the wire between Liberty and Garces. The Patriots came in favored, but a couple of disqualifications hurt Liberty and allowed the Rams to hang around and actually take the lead late in the meet when Kyle O'Malley won the 100 breaststroke. The result of that was a swimming fan's dream: All of the marbles came down to the final relay, swimming's glamour event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Michael Rowe swam the last leg for Liberty and held off Garces' Paul Steele by 1.44 seconds to give Liberty its title with 386 points to Garces' 384.5.
Honorable mention: Central Section Masters meet; Central Section Division II meet

A look ahead: It's possible the tide (water, get it? Man, I'm good) could be turning slightly away from Stockdale next year. I hesitate to say that, because the Mustangs are loaded with depth, and the two young guys I mentioned earlier, Castilleja and Szablowski, are going to be the anchors of another strong team. But Stockdale does lose Wickensheimer, Kim and Collier, while Frontier brings back Aakhus and Liberty brings back talented Michael Rowe and David James. Garces could turn into the main threat if the Rams get a couple of swimmers from their multitude of solid group to get to an elite level. Are any of those teams going to have enough to pass the Mustangs? I wouldn't bank on it, but next year the door is slightly more open that it has been for the past few years.

Year in Review Index
July 1: Football
July 2: Volleyball
July 3: Boys cross country
July 6: Girls cross country
July 7: Girls tennis
July 8: Girls golf
July 9: Boys basketball
July 10: Girls basketball
July 11: Wrestling
July 13: Boys soccer
July 14: Girls soccer
July 15: Baseball
July 16: Softball
July 18: Boys track and field
July 19: Girls track and field

Tomorrow: Girls swimming