Swim: Nighthawks repeat as D-II champs

The Del Norte High boys swim team claimed its second straight San Diego Section Division II championship Saturday at Granite Hills High.

Junior Austin Nguyen repeated as the 200-yard individual medley and 100 breaststroke champion, while Jacob Sauter and Liam McCallum captured titles in the 200 freestyle and the 100 free, respectively. It all resulted in the Nighthawks cruising to the team title, as they scored a whopping 334.5 points. Second-place La Jolla finished with 232.5 points and Mt. Carmel came in third with 207 points.

Del Norte will be sending 10 swimmers to the state championships, which are slated for Friday and Saturday at Clovis West High School. Nguyen, who raced to the 200 IM title in 1-minute, 54.04 seconds and to the 100 breast crown in 56.77, qualified for the second straight year. Joining him will be Sauter, Dorian Humbert (200 freestyle), McCallum (50 free and 100 free), Sam Schneider (diving) and the medley relay team (Joshua Freeman, Kyle Mak, Reo Yoo and Stephan Leon).

Nguyen, Sauter, Humbert and McCallum also make up the 200- and 400-free relay teams, which will swim at the state championships. The 200 relay team won the section championship in a record time of 1:25.45. The 400 relay resulted in a second-place finish by the Nighthawks, who were edged by one-hundredths of a second in the final by La Jolla.

Sauter won the 200 free in 1:40.72 and McCallum won the 100 free in 46.47.

Division I

Rancho Bernardo High’s Tin Huynh won the San Diego Section Division I 50-yard freestyle title for the third straight year and added his first championship in the 100 free at Saturday’s finals.

The senior who will swim at UC San Diego next year won the 50 free in 20.99 seconds and the 100 free in 46.43. Huynh will compete at the state championships Friday along with teammates Carly Doi (diving) and Jack Spitzer (200 individual medley and 500 free). Poway’s Jon Brady will compete in diving.