INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Riverside Poly-Murrieta Valley CIF-Southern Section Division 2 boys varsity water polo match on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010, for The Press-Enterprise and came away thinking the team with greater overall fitness won the match.

Murrieta Valley looks like a team of 6-foot-1, 180-pound genetic clones. Better yet, the Nighthawks are team of water polo robots scientifically engineered by their coach, Bryan Lynton.

Each is designed and created to fulfill an objective. Need a 2-meter defender? Here’s Cody Wetherbee (6-1, 180). Need a top-notch wing? Here’s Sean Shughrou (6-1, 165). Need a center? Here’s Jantz Johnson (6-1, 185). Need a goalkeeper? Here’s Dylan Vrooman (6-foot, 170). And the list goes on and on because Lynton has made 12 metronomes.

Riverside Poly has no metronomes, they’re mostly motley. The Bears have bodies of all shapes and sizes, including seniors Chris Swieca (6-3, 220) and Nolyn Wild (6-2, 180). But they also have a player who reminded me of my pudgy little brother, and a lot of just-plain-average players in between. There weren’t any robots in this group, just one bull (Swieca) and one gazelle (Wild). And as everyone knows, animals don’t stand a chance against robots.

Just look at the expression on the face Poly goalkeeper Bill Runyon (pictured). He knows. Robots have taken over.

The final score, 17-5, was as wide a margin as the quality between the two teams. Clearly, Murrieta Valley was more talented… from battery to diode.

Riverside Poly coach Casey Finfrock:
“They’re a really quality program this year. They’ve got a lot of depth, and a lot of speed and a lot of kids with a lot of kids who can play. It just kind of showed. You gotta give them credit. They hustled up and down the pool from the very first minute of the game to the very last minute of the game. There’s always going to be a level of disappointment. It’s not necessarily disappointment because we lost this game — they’re a quality program and we knew this was going to be a very tough game — I think the disappointment’s in we didn’t give them a better game. We know there’s always improve and grow and improve and keep moving forward. There’s programs that’ve worked hard to get in front of us and be where they are, and we have to work just as hard to stay with them now.

Murrieta Valley coach Bryan Lynton:
“Speedwise, I think we’re pretty good. Water polo’s a physical game, and when we get into playoffs (the game officials) tend to let a lot more happen away from the ball. One-on-one, I don’t know if we have anybody that’s as big a Chris Swieca, but we did a pretty good job on him. We’ve been playing good water polo the last couple of week and the training has been going really, really well. We started this game the way we wanted to. We started and finished this game the right way. We’re just hopin’ we keep building. Keep getting better over the next couple of days and we’ll be ready for semis.”

Murrieta Valley senior goalkeeper Dylan Vrooman:
“I was in a little slump until we started doing the drills in practice that I needed. They took me up to the next level, and really helped me a lot. We want this really, really bad. I think being the No. 1 seed — we deserve it, we do — we deserve to be the No. 1 seed. But we have to work for it. We definitely have to work for it.”