Katie Dusseault’s crowning achievement for a stellar swimming career at Ramona High was a trip to the State Championships last weekend in Clovis.
For her opponents, the reward is they won’t have to race against her ever again.
The Bulldog senior racked up eight straight Valley League championships in the 50- and 100-freestyle events over her four years and topped that off by being a member of a pair of gold medal relay teams.
Translation: She was unbeaten until the section championships.
“Ever since I was a freshman, winning league four straight years was my goal,” said the 18-year-old, who had the best finish of her career in this year’s section championships when she placed second in the Division 2 50-yard finals.
The top three finishers based on time advance to Clovis West High for the state championships. Because the Division 2 championships were in the morning and she could still be bumped based on how the Division 1 meet went, she had to constantly check the results online to see if she’d qualified for her first state meet.
As a freshman she missed by one place.
This time, though, her second-place time of 24.23 seconds earned her that trip to get an opportunity to compete against the best in the state.
Dusseault was unable to match her performance in the section championships in Friday’s state prelims, clocking a time of 24.82.
“I competed in that pool (at Clovis West High) in the zones, so I was familiar with it,” she said. “It’s very fast.”
Just ask Rocklin Whitney High’s Jada Duncan, who set a state meet record in the 50 free, qualifying by a half second at 22.26. She was even faster in the finals, clocking a 22.23
“I’m just excited for the opportunity,” Dusseault said. “I was happy to go out in a fast meet like this one.”
She explained her strategy.
“When I go to a meet like this, I like to watch what the others are doing but when it gets closer to my event, I want to be by myself to think over what I’m going to do,” she said.
“Actually, before the race, I try not to think at all because that stresses me out. Ahead of time I get fired up and once I’m on the starting blocks, I just try to to breathe.”
Most of the time, Dusseault goes the entire 50-yard race without breathing. If she feels the need, she’ll take a quick breath when she comes out of her turn.
Mind you, it’s all automatic now because she and the water have been one for as far back as she can . She ed the Ramona Swim Club at age 5 and by the time she was 13, none of the girls on the team could push her and there weren’t enough boys to give her much competition.
For four years of dual meets and league championships, Dusseault was always the first one to the wall in the 50-yard or 100-yard races.
But now her high school career is over.
“I have mixed feelings about high school and club,” she said. “In high school, I have my friends but while my club team is really small, I know it’s there that I get the most competition.
“I just like swimming and especially earning points for the team. I’ve done the 100 back and 100 butterfly in meets but mostly the short sprints.”
She has been the Bulldogs’ team captain the last two years and guides by example. She juggles school and swimming easily, compiling a 3.8 GPA.
“I really like the 50,” she said. “You race just as fast as you can — I’m very competitive.”
Indeed, she is the only Ramona girls’ swimmer to ever qualify for state, ing Brandon Powell who went to the state meet in 2015 for the boys.
Her best times of 24.23 in the 50 and 53.98 in the 100 stand atop the Ramona High girls’ record board and she was just as happy to her teammates atop of the victory stand in the 200-medley (where she led off in the backstroke) and 200-yard freestyle relays at the league meet.
“I’m going to Cal State Fullerton (where she plans to major in business honors), which doesn’t have a girls’ swim team, but I plan to keep swimming for a club,” Dusseault said. “Swimming is just a part of my life.”
