TEMECULA — The Murrieta Mesa boys and girls swimming teams collected the lion’s share of championship patches at the Southwestern League championship meet held Thursday at Temecula Valley High School.

Murrieta Mesa’s swimmers and relays won 14 of the 22 championship races, with the boys and girls teams winning seven races apiece. Riley Renaud, Emilee Elizondo and Sonja Aarsvold all won two individual events on the girls side and also were part of one winning relay team. Justin Schneider was a double winner on the boys side, and he also anchored a pair of winning relay teams for the Rams on Thursday.

“They have continued to work hard despite all of the challenge that have come with this season,” Murrieta Mesa coach Jennifer Beech said. “This is what they wanted. They wanted to come out here, battle and be champions. I couldn’t be more proud of this group.”

Schneider won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1 minute, 53.43 seconds, nearly six seconds faster than the next finisher. He later won the 100 freestyle in 46:07, besting his own league meet record of 46.23 set Tuesday in the prelims. Schneider teamed with brother Ty Schneider, Alexander Yang and Maximus Dillon to win the 200 medley relay in 1:35.65. Justin Schneider, Dillon, Yang and Eryk Elizondo put the final touch on a successful meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay in 3:16.75.

Eryk Elizondo, Alex Pena, Trevor Haskins and Ty Schneider won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:31.75.

Elizondo turned in one of the eye-popping moments of the meet, as he won the 50 freestyle in a time of 21.64. Elizondo dropped nearly a second from his preliminary time (22.54) and beat the next finisher by .76 seconds.

“I have always believed Eryk had that in him. He went out there and slammed it home today,” Beech said.

Dillon was the other boys winner for Murrieta Mesa on Thursday, winning the 100 backstroke title in 53.00.

Renaud swept the distance freestyle events on the girls side, winning the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:59.52 and the 500 freestyle in 5:15.95. Aarsvold won the sprint freestyles, winning the 50 freestyle in 23.98 and the 100 freestyle in 51.70. Emilee Elizondo won the 100 butterfly (58.49) and the 100 backstroke (1:00.05).

Renaud, Aarsvold and Elizondo teamed with Ashley Murray to win the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1:41.88. Aarsvold had a final split of 23.67 to help the Rams out-touch Murrieta Valley at the finish by .02 seconds.

“The girls team is a young group, but they showed what the future might be for the program,” Beech said.

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