Valley roundup: Xavier Prep swimmer nabs two CIF-SS individual titles

Xavier Prep sophomore swimming sensation Ava Ottesen keeps reaching new heights in the world of high school swimming.

Last weekend, Ottesen won not one but two CIF-SS titles, capturing the Division 3 crown in the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle races at the CIF-SS meet in Riverside.

Ottesen, fresh off a record-setting performance at the Desert Empire League meet, won the 100-yard race in 51.91 seconds. She then went on to win the 200-yard race in a time of 1:51.66, a full two seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

Ottesen will now move on to the CIF State meet in Clovis on Friday and Saturday.

Track and field

The desert's top track and field athletes had the CIF-SS prelims on Saturday and had to finish in the top nine to advance to this weekend's CIF-SS meet in Moorpark for all four divisions. These are the local qualifiers:

Division 1: The La Quinta Blackhawks were the only desert team in the top division and that didn't stop Kameron Hawkins from advancing. The talented La Quinta star finished ninth in the triple jump with a leap of 44-feet flat.

Also it should be noted for the Blackhawks that distance specialist Martin Torres-Sandoval broke the school record with a 4:19.89 in the 1,600 meter, but his 16th-place finish in the uber-competitive race wasn't enough to advance.

Division 2: The only person to advance from the desert out of the division was Palm Desert's Jaliyah Alexander, who finished ninth in the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 46.79.

Division 3: Shadow Hills had multiple athletes qualify into this week's CIF-SS finals, all from the girls' team.

Victoria Hyatt placed sixth in the 300-meter hurdles in 47.65 seconds and teammate Jaelyn McDermott finished ninth in the same race in 48.20 with both moving on to the finals.

Hyatt and McDermott were also part of the Knights' 4-by-400 relay team which took eighth and advanced. That team included Dayanara Salazar and Isabella Ortiz and had a time of 4:06.48. Isabella Pimentel finished an impressive fifth in the discus with a toss of 114 feet, 9 inches.

Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs each had a girl qualify for this weekend's CIF-SS finals in Moorpark.

For the Indians, Gabriela Figueira-Schieldge finished sixth in the 400-meter in a time of 58.02 seconds.

For the Golden Eagles, shot putter Skyla Svidergol finished fifth with a throw of 36 feet, 5 inches.

Division 4: Xavier Prep freshman Malia Strange had a huge day taking first place in the triple jump (38 feet, 10.75 inches), second place in the long jump (17 feet, 3.75 inches) and sixth place in the 100-meter hurdles (15.88 seconds) to advance to the CIF-SS finals.

On the boys' side, the Saints Austin McDaniel also qualified with a time of 17.03 seconds that was good enough for ninth place in the 110 hurdles.

Boys' tennis

Xavier Prep wins again: The Xavier Prep Saints keep rolling and are the only desert team remaining. They pulled off an impressive quarterfinal win on Monday, sneaking past Long Beach Poly 10-8 to move into the Division 4 semifinals on Wednesday where they will face Rowland High.

Long Beach Poly was ranked in a tie for first in the final regular-season Division 4 poll, while the Saints were ranked 10th.

The Saints started their playoff run with a 13-5 win over Chino Hills and a 13-5 win over Garden Grove.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Valley roundup: Xavier Prep swimmer nabs two CIF-SS individual titles