Luca Casimiro turned in a highly decorated high school swimming career while a student-athlete at Eastlake High School.
He earned the 2011 Mesa League male swimmer of the year award as a junior en route to posting a runner-up finish in the 200-yard individual medley at the Division I San Diego Section finals.
He capped his Titan career with an entry in the section record book by winning the Division I title in the 100-yard butterfly event in 2012 with a time of 51.23 seconds.
Casimiro went on to compete at the collegiate level at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
He is now back in very familiar surroundings as head coach of the Eastlake swim program.
His career has come full circle.
“It’s great, it’s fun,” Casimiro said prior to Thursday night’s Mesa League dual meet against Olympian High School amid light rainfall at the Parkway pool. “I know a lot of parents. This is a group that I want to see be successful. We’ll get faster as the season goes on. I’d like to see us to become a CIF contender.”
The Titans swept the Eagles in both gender fields, winning the girls meet by a score of 132-43 and the boys meet by a score of 96-79.
Eastlake captured first-place finishes in all 11 swimming events in the girls meet, conceding only the diving competition. The Titans captured first-place finishes in nine of the 11 boys swimming events.
Top individuals in the girls meet include Elisabeth Lundgren, Alexandra Morgan, Cecilia Hagewood, Pia Davila and Karyed Espinosa while Alfred Høoberg, Emilio Camarillo, Jack Fischer and Aaron Medina all notched first-place finishes in the boys meet.
Lundgren doubled in winning the 200-yard freestyle (2:03) and 100 backstroke (1:04) while Morgan doubled in winning the 200 individual medley (2:28) and 500 freestyle (5:36). Hagewood doubled in winning the 50 freestyle (25.0) and 100 breaststroke (1:11).
Davila won the 100 butterfly (1:05) while Espinosa won the 100 freestyle (1:04). Davila also finished second in the 100 backstroke (1:07).
Høoberg, a sophomore exchange student from Denmark, recorded impressive victories in both the 200 freestyle (1:58.03) and 500 freestyle (5:18.25).
Camarillo was equally impressive in winning the 200 individual medley (2:14.47) and 100 freestyle (57.53).
Fischer won the 50 freestyle in 23.34 while Medina captured the100 butterfly in 58.63. Fischer also finished second in the 100 backstroke in 1:05.
Eastlake won all three girls relay events, timing 2:02 in the 200 medley relay, 1:56 in the 200 freestyle relay and 3:58 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Eastlake posted 1-2 individual finishes in 10 of the 11 girls swimming events and 1-2-3 individual finishes in five events.
Other top times turned in by Titans in the girls meet included Sophia Lopez (2:13 in the 200 freestyle), Natalie Bautista (2:39 in the 200 IM), Mackenzie Surrey (27.0 in the 50 freestyle), Laura Estrada (1:06 in the 100 butterfly) and Katie Mercer (1:18 in the 100 breaststroke).
Elizabeth Burkhart (1:07) finished second in the 100 freestyle to record Olympian’s top individual finish in the girls meet.
Eastlake won all three relay events in the boys meet, timing 1:49.34 in the 200 medley relay, 1:44.03 in the 200 freestyle relay and 3:35.84 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Høoberg and Camarillo swam legs on the Titans’ winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams.
Zedric Soriano paced Olympian with a first-place individual finish in the 100 backstroke (1:01.10) while Sean Sebree won the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.15.
Soriano finished second in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.31 while Sebree finished second in the 200 IM in 2:17.87.
Olympian posted a 1-2 finish in the 100 breaststroke as Yad Hasan (1:10) finished second to Sebree.
The Eagles recorded eight second-place finishes in individual events overall. Kevin Schwartz timed 2:07.70 in placing runner-up in the 200 freestyle event.
Olympian timed 1:49.75 in taking a close second to Eastlake in the 200 medley relay. The Eagles also placed second in both the 200 freestyle relay (1:54.97) and 400 freestyle relay (3:41.2).
Eastlake opened the season by competing in the Sundevil Invitational March 17 at Mt. Carmel High School. The Titans placed fourth in the boys field and seventh in the girls field.
Dive, she said
Olympian’s Alicia Cota Arellano continues to excel in her first season as a high school diver after recording a top score of 230.1 points in Thursday’s dual meet.
She received scores of 9-9-9 during one dive and 9-8.5-9 on another.
Erik Duarte won the boys competition with a score of 118.85 points.
Making a splash
Prior to the Eastlake-Olympian dual meet, Chula Vista and Southwest met in a South Bay League dual meet at the Parkway pool.
Chula Vista won the girls meet by a score of 111-47 while Southwest captured a narrow 84-83 victory in the boys meet.
Spartan standouts included David Macias, who won the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle events in the boys meet, and Allison Simon, who captured the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke events in the girls meet.
