PREP ROUNDUP : Fountain Valley Swimmers Give Marina a Workout

Fountain Valley has had plenty of reasons to cheer this season, but the girls’ swim team figures it will hold off on any premature celebrations.

The Barons keep the talk to a minimum and the hard work at a maximum.

In a Sunset League meet at Fountain Valley Tuesday, the payoff was an unexpected 121-66 victory over Marina.

Fountain Valley’s performance, which improved the Barons to 6-2, wasn’t a surprise, but the way the host team dominated was. Marina isn’t exactly a walkover.

“Thanks for walloping us,” Marina Coach Dave Pickford called to Fountain Valley Coach Debbi Kelly at the end.

Kelly thought Marina would put up more of a fight: “I wasn’t sure where he’d be placing his swimmers, and I wondered how I’d counter what he’d do. But we have a lot of depth this year.”

Fountain Valley won all but three of 11 races--senior Heather Riggs won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 18.53 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 1:03.00--and through its depth picked up important points in the second through fifth spots.

“That’s what I tell the girls, that the goal isn’t to always win the race but to beat the swimmer you’re going against.”

But as the Barons inch closer to the Southern Section meet, it becomes harder not to think about other goals, like the section meet, where Fountain Valley is determined to improve on its disappointing 14th-place finish in 1992.

“That’s the ultimate goal, but we don’t really talk about it,” Kelly said. “I talk about it more to the girls on the fringe.”

Riggs isn’t on the fringe. Riggs was one of two Fountain Valley swimmers who qualified for the section finals last year. She, like her team, is looking to improve on last year’s showing.

“I’m hoping we can improve, our relays are a lot stronger,” said Riggs, who pointed to Fountain Valley’s second place finish in the recent CIF Relays as proof.

The Barons’ relays are sure to improve from last year at the section meet, where two of the three relays were disqualified for false starts.

“We’ve been working on our starts a lot,” Riggs said.