Eight SFC Eagles traveled to Granite Hills to participate in the annual Ben Hedberg Invitational Swim Meet on Saturday, March 25th, 2023. The event drew 27 high school teams from San Diego to Redondo Beach with more than 640 swimmers! Head Coach Karen Schmidt was truly excited for our swimmers stating "We came ready to race, and our Eagles' team spirit and speedy swims far surpassed my optimistic expectations! What an amazing day for each of our swimmers!"

Our boys team for the day consisted of only 4 swimmers, Freshman Mitchell Bailey, Sophomore Tyler Benton, Junior Ian Arnold, and Senior Max Pagon - and after 4 events, the boys were ranked in 8th place! They continued to work hard but with such a small roster, they just couldn't capture the points to remain in contention. The girls team also consisted of just 4 swimmers: Freshman Linxi Barker, Sophomore Gisele Patron, Junior Amy Wolter, and Senior Revere Schmidt - and these girls also brought their best to the event!

The day was an exciting one for the Eagles!! The team reached 16 of 19 season bests and 8 individual personal records! Four Eagles had new Automatic CIF cuts:
Girls 200 Medley Relay: Freshman Linxi Barker, Sophomore Gisele Patron, Junior Amy Wolter, and Senior Revere Schmidt
Girls 200 Free Relay: Barker, Patron, Wolter and Schmidt
Junior Arnold: 100 Backstroke
Freshman Bailey: 200 Freestyle.
Additionally, these swimmers accomplished 5 new Consideration CIF cuts:
Patron: 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke
Barker: 50 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke
Arnold: 100 Butterfly

The team worked together to do their best, with Eagles' top 16 finishes earned by:
Schmidt: 2nd in 200 IM and 3rd in 500 Freestyle
Pagon: 3rd (tie) in 50 Freestyle and 11th in 100 Freestyle
Arnold: 8th in 100 Butterfly and 9th in 100 Backstroke
Bailey: 7th in 200 Freestyle and 12th in100 Backstroke
Patron: 10th Place in 100 Backstroke
Girls 200 Meter Relay (Barker, Patron, Wolter and Schmidt): 10th out of 48 teams
Girls 200 Freestyle Relay (Barker, Wolter, Patron and Schmidt): 10th out of 50
Boys 200 Meter Relay (Bailey, Benton, Arnold, Pagon): 16th out of 45 teams

Our 3 relays earned 30 team points while the following individuals contributed 100 points to the team total from their individual events!
Schmidt: 33
Pagon: 21.5
Arnold: 20
Bailey: 17
Patron: 7

Keep up the great work!