Falcon soars for Ocean View at CIF finals

RIVERSIDE — As Dominic Falcon easily outdistanced the competition in the 500-yard freestyle Friday night at Riverside City College, the announcer at the CIF Southern Section Division 4 swimming championships came up with an apt name for the Ocean View High sophomore.

“Dominating Dominic,” the announcer called him. It seemed to fit, although Falcon shrugged it off after the race.

“I try to stay as humble as I can,” he said.

Falcon’s performance spoke for itself. After finishing second in Division 4 last year in both the 200 free and 500 free, he wasn’t going to be denied again.

Falcon won both events to highlight a stellar night for the Seahawks, who finished a strong sixth as a team on the boys’ side and eighth on the girls’ side in Division 4.

The other local team competing was Los Amigos, which had no swimmers in the championship final of an event. Senior Loc Tran had the best finish, winning the consolation final of the boys’ 100 butterfly.

Falcon was happy to end his sophomore year as a two-time CIF champion. He almost made it three with a relay win, but the Seahawks finished second in the 200 medley relay. Ocean View’s Thomas Powell-Horan, Nico Falcon, Dominic Falcon and Peter Carlson touched in 1:43.00, which was still a school-record time.

Dominic Falcon, who also anchored the Seahawks’ 400 medley relay which placed eighth, was simply dominant in his individual events in his final meet of the high school season. The Irvine Novaquatics club swimmer said he didn’t plan to swim in next week’s CIF State Championships.

He certainly dazzled Friday night with a pair of personal-best times. He won the 200 free in 1:42.48, more than three seconds faster than second-place Lachlan Wappet of Buckley. In the 500 free, Falcon touched in 4:35.22 to lower his own school record from Golden West League finals. It was nearly 24 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Jonathan Villa of Warren.

“Dominic is a quiet leader,” said Ocean View coach Alec Raley of Falcon, who helped the Seahawks boys defend their Golden West League title this year. “He’s a class act. He’s a great athlete, and everybody on the team looks up to him. We’re proud to have him at the front of the pack.”

Other Ocean View swimmers also swam in championship finals. On the girls’ side, sophomore Emma Fisher dropped time in both of her events, finishing fourth in the 500 free (5:32.79) and ninth in the 100 backstroke (1:04.27).

“I dropped time, and that’s what I was looking for,” Fisher said. “I’m just a sophomore, so I still have more time to improve.”

It’s a strong sophomore class for Ocean View, and it also includes Leyna Tran, who moved up to take sixth in the girls’ 100 free in 57.05, dropping nearly a second from her preliminaries time.

“It’s pretty exciting, actually,” said Tran, who also was 18^th in the girls’ 200 IM. “I just wanted to go in there and do my best … [Swimming your personal-best times at CIF finals] it’s like your entire season paid off. It’s pretty cool.”

Falcon knows the next couple of years at Ocean View are going to be fast with these sophomores coming back.

“Me, Leyna and Emma are really good friends at school,” he said. “It’s nice to see them do well, also.”

Ocean View junior Brent Nishioka was sixth in the boys’ 200 free (1:51.87), and Nico Falcon, who is twins with Dominic, was seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.90).

The Seahawks girls also competed in the finals of the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay. Fisher, Kiara Abascal, Tran and Sydney Sullivan touched in eighth in 2:03.51 in the medley. The same four girls touched in 3:59.44 in the 400 free relay, good for seventh place.

Los Amigos’ Tran had a highlight for the Lobos. He touched in 55.74 seconds to win the 100 butterfly consolation final by one-hundredth of a second over Trevor Taylor of Quartz Hill.

As he left the water, Tran was clearly pumped up after ending his high school career on this note. This year, he helped the Lobos win their first Garden Grove League swimming title in nine years, and they also won the league in boys’ water polo.

“We just really wanted it this year, and it motivated the whole team,” Tran said. “It means a lot.”

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Twitter: @mjszabo