Tina Hill is one busy body.
When she’s not training and competing for the SBCC women’s swim team, she’s teaching math at Santa Barbara High and working as an assistant coach for the high school swim teams.
SBCC coach Chuckie Roth expressed his appreciation and respect for Hill at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Café.
Roth saw Hill swimming one morning during the fall.
“I said, ‘Hey, you’re kind of fast. You ever thought about coming back and swimming at City College?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, right,’” he recalled of an early conversation with the 28-year-old Hill.
He said about two months later Hill asked him when the season started.
“Tina came into this thinking it’s probably unrealistic to be a full-time athlete and a full-time teacher, and also has a lot of other things going in her life. But she’s managed it so professionally. I’m so impressed with what she’s doing. At age 28, she came back to swim at SBCC.”
Hill swam in high school and for a club team but didn’t compete in college. She’s taking 12 units to swim for SBCC.
Hill, who completed an ocean swim from Santa Cruz Island to Oxnard last summer, has the fourth fastest time in the state in the mile swim and the fifth fastest time in the 500 free. She holds school records in the 500 and 1,000 swims and was part of an 800 free relay team that set a school mark last week.
“She’ll make the state (meet) in three events,” Roth said. “More importantly, she’s not only become an inspirational leader but also a role model for our team. For a bunch of college girls who are waking up and maybe a little tired that day, when she’s grading tests on the bus, they all look over at her… ‘If Tina can do that, then I can’t say anything.’”
Hill can’t train with the team because it conflicts with her teaching at SBHS, so she squeezes in time whenever she can to get in her workouts,
“This girl is amazing. (The SBCC swimmers) all think she’s super woman. She’s had some phenomenal performances so far. She’s really dedicated her life to this and she is an inspiration to our team.”
Roth also introduced Alex Humann and said she can be a three-event winner at the Western State Conference Championships. She competes in the butterfly and freestyle events and is a mainstay on relays
San Marcos: Boys coach Jeff Ashton called the Mt. SAC Meet of Champions one of the most exciting meets he’s ever been a part of. The meet came down to the final event for the overall title.
Going into the final relay, the Royals were tied with Diamond Bar for the combined team title.
“I told my guys we have to win this relay and we’ll win the meet,” he said.
The Royals delivered a great time in their heat that Diamond Bar couldn’t beat in another heat.
“The guys all swam best times and we set a school record,” Ashton said
He introduced two members of the relay team, junior swimmer Sean Apsey and freshman Tristan Depew, the Nos. 1 and 2 guys. Apsey also finished second in the 500 free and swam in the consolation finals of the 100 breast. “He’s a solid all-around swimmer,” said Ashton.
Depew won the consolation final in the 100 butterfly. “He’s doing a fabulous job,” said the coach.
San Marcos girls: Down by 80 points going into the final day of competition, coach Chuckie Roth told his swimmers they had to improve three places in their events if they were going to overtake Glendora at the Meet of Champions.
They almost did it, falling 21 points short.
“It was an amazing feat,” he said. “I’ve never had a team swim so well at this point of the season. It was a great accomplishment for our team.”
He lauded the swims of Paige Hauschild and Lili Rose Akin.
Hauschild won the 50 free after playing a game with her club team at the Cal Cup Water Polo Championships. “She was going back from water polo to swimming,” said Roth.
In the 100 free, Hauschild, a junior, finished second to a swimmer who is on the USA Junior National Team and a defending CIF champion.
“Paige is the girl everyone is freaked out about in high school swimming because she’s predominantly a water polo player,” said Roth. “Nobody really knows who she is and where she came from, but she’s crazy fast and has an enormous amount of talent.”
He said the sophomore Akin is a grind-out swimmer who also excels in the classroom (4.5 GPA). She swam a CIF consideration time in the 500 free and achieved a personal best in the 200 free at the Meet of Champions.
Dos Pueblos: First-year boys coach Kendall Neely introduced swim team captains Brandi Melendez and Will Oakley. She also brought Teodor Velikov, the boys team’s “go-to sprinter,” and Cassie Barkhorn, “an all-around swimmer and inspiration to the team.”
DIVING
Santa Barbara: Seniors Nina Enholm and Lucia Dallett are the leaders for the girls team and Carter Feld and Derek Stein lead the way for the boys. Stein recently place second at the Rio Mesa diving competition, the first tournament of his career.
Enholm is headed to UCLA and Dallett has committed to NYU.
Santa Barbara is undefeated in Channel League and is looking for its second straight league title.
BASEBALL
San Marcos: With eight games left in the regular season, the Royals are 10-7 after winning just six games last year and five in 2014.
Ryan Guardino and Blake Katsev are two big reasons for the team’s success. Katsev is looking to play at the next level. Guardino is coming off a big week. He went 6 for 11 in four games with five doubles. He leads the team with a .426 batting average.
SBCC: Coach Jeff Walker said the Vaqueros are two games behind Cuesta in the race for the conference title. They play a home-and-away series against Pierce before hosting Ventura on “Rusty Fairly Day” at Pershing Park.
Walker reported that sophomore right-handed pitcher Steven Ledesma signed a letter of intent with UCSB last week.
GOLF
San Marcos: Coach Aaron Solis said he’s getting more gray hairs because of the tight matches his team has been involved in lately. The Royals eked out a three-shot win over Santa Barbara last week at Santa Barbara Golf Club.
Solis introduced juniors Sam Metzger and Bryce Quezada. Metzger is the defending Channel League individual champion and “one of the most consistent golfers on the team with Chad Visser.” He said Quezada “is doing everything we’ve asked of him. His strength and the way he hits the ball will be important” as the Royals head down the stretch of the regular season and into CIF competition.
UCSB: Coach Steve Lass said the Gauchos are led by Brandon Bauman. His score average is 71.6 through 30 rounds of Division 1 golf, with 27 of those round on the road. Bauman has two wins and a runner-up finish this season.
The Gauchos are head to the Big West Championships, May 2-4 at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley.
Santa Barbara High: JV coach Jay Wright said he never coached freshman Isaac Stone and sophomore Preston Gomersall “because they’re so good; they’re on the varsity team.”
The Dons play Dos Pueblos on Tuesday at Sandpiper Golf Club.
BASEBALL
Dos Pueblos: Assistant coach Lucas Signorelli introduced his gritty, tough guys Quinn Peacock and Josh Feldhaus. Peacock is a three-year varsity player who can play infield and outfield. He has 13 hits, 12 runs and 8 RBIs.
Feldhaus is the DP catcher. He ranks second on the team in doubles with seven and hits with 21.
The Chargers (13-5) host Buena on Tuesday in a Channel League game.
Bishop Diego: Coach Ralph Molina said the Cardinals are hitting the ball hard but right at people. He introduced four-year varsity player catcher Izzy Reyes and sophomore Dylan Streett, a three-sport athlete who filled in for Reyes when he was out with an injury.
Streett recently pitched a one-hitter in a JV game.
Bishop (4-9, 1-3 in the Tri-Valley League) plays a two-game series with rival Carpinteria on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday’s game is at Carpinteria.
Carpinteria: Coach Pat Cooney introduced team leaders Sal Delgado, Malcolm Gordon and Jonah Spach.
After sitting next to the Bishop players at the luncheon on Monday, he said his guys will be ready “to get after it between the lines on Wednesday.”
Westmont: The seventh-ranked Warriors are in the running to be a host site for the opening round of the NAIA National Tournament.
After going 4-0 last week, coach Robert Ruiz said the Warriors (35-7) are one game ahead of the team they’re contending with to be a host.
“We’ve never hosted before,” he said. “It’s a really exciting thing for our community and the Santa Barbara community.”
The announcement will be made on Friday.
Westmont heads into its final regular season games at home this weekend against Biola. Senior Day is set for Saturday.
Ruiz said seniors Sam Sheehan and Michael Rishwain have been fantastic coming out of the bullpen to close out games. Rishwain is a set-up guy and Sheehan the closer. He is tied for the single-season saves lead with 10.
“The eighth and nine innings consistently have been dominated by those two,” he said.
Alex Bush has been another key player. He had nine RBIs last week.
Ruiz noted that the Westmont seniors have had a winning season in each of the four years they’ve played at the school.
“I think that’s pretty significant. They’ve been in integral part of what we’ve been building at Westmont,” he said.
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