Carondelet, De La Salle swim teams sweep NCS titles
CONCORD, CA (May 18, 2023) — The Class of 2023 high school swimmers missed competing in league, section and state championships their freshman and sophomore seasons. However, swimmers at Carondelet and De La Salle certainly didn’t let those disappointments impact a memorable senior year.
Both parochial schools claimed North Coast Section swimming championships this month in their local Concord Community Pool. For the Spartans it is back-to-back NCS titles and both times in an epic head-to-head battle with nearby Northgate.
Carondelet reversed the order of finish this year as the Cougars outscored 2022 champions Campolindo to claim their first NCS swim crown since 2013.
De La Salle came out of the pandemic era by dominating the pool with NCS championships in consecutive years for both Spartan water polo and swim teams. Several boys competed for both teams and racked up a haul of winner’s medals.
De La Salle and Northgate showed dominance by outscoring the rest of the field of 37 schools by over 100 points, a similar result to last spring.
The neighboring schools battled throughout the meet. In the third to last event Scott Iannaccone took third in the 100 backstroke and got 11 more points in the event than the top Bronco finisher. It proved decisive as Northgate outpointed De La Salle 60-51 in the final two events but came up short with the Spartans totaling 284 to Northgate’s 274.
Carondelet
On the girls side, Campo edged Carondelet by 14 points last year but the Cougars were 41 better this time over their Moraga rivals. Carondelet now has 10 NCS team swim championships and De La Salle seven.
Getting much of the plaudits for Carondelet at NCS was senior Bailey Hartman who has already turned her attention to training for the USA Swimming National Championships beginning June 27 in Indianapolis. She’ll be competing there in four events hoping to land a spot on an American national or junior national team.
In the fall she’ll be at defending NCAA champion Virginia starting her collegiate career.
At NCS she told coach Roque Santos to use her in the best manner to ensure team success and that meant going in back-to-back 100 and 500 freestyle races, both of which she won. She sacrificed a chance to set meet records in order to accumulate team points.
Carondelet ended its 10-year drought of NCS titles and Hartman couldn’t be happier. She told SportStars magazine, “Carondelet is such a good school to be a part of,” Hartman said. “We say it a lot. It’s like a sisterhood. And it really is. We really support each other and we’re all part of this big family. It’s really cool to be a part of something that big.”
Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.