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It was a trailblazing calendar year for sports in San Clemente.
There were records broken, championships won, landmark performances and marquee events that highlighted San Clemente on a local, state and national level for athletics.
Here is a look back at some of the memorable San Clemente sports moments of 2023:
FEBRUARY
SCHS Boys Soccer Wins CIF-SS Division 2 Championship
The Tritons posted another perfect defensive performance to win the program’s fourth CIF-SS championship in a 2-0 win over Long Beach Poly. Finn Linas and Beckham Beauchemin scored to support Ryan Savoie’s clean sheet. San Clemente allowed one goal in four CIF-SS playoff games.
Tritons Girls Wrestling Earns First State Placers, Davis Wins First Girls Masters
San Clemente’s wrestling program has always been a pioneer with the strength of its girls teams, and they made history in the CIF postseason. Berlyn Davis won San Clemente’s first-ever CIF-SS Masters girls championship with a dominant run, and at the CIF State Championships, Davis and Eden Hernandez became the first San Clemente girls to place at the tournament in third and sixth, respectively.
MARCH
SCHS Girls Lacrosse, Competitive Cheer Earn CIF-SS Academic Championships
By earning the top unweighted, teamwide grade-point averages in their respective sports in the CIF-Southern Section, the San Clemente girls lacrosse and competitive cheer teams were both awarded academic championships. All 27 San Clemente varsity teams finished in the CIF-SS top 25 for their respective sports, including 10 teams in the top five.
APRIL
SCHS Boys Swimming Wins First League Title Since 2004
San Clemente claimed a multilevel sweep of the South Coast League for the Tritons’ first boys swimming league championship in nearly 20 years. Noah Sech clocked two school records for league titles in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke, and the Tritons earned nine top-five finishes, including seven top-three finishes. San Clemente won frosh-soph, junior varsity, varsity and diving league championships.
Tritons Beach Volleyball Wins Opening Match of Sport’s First-Ever CIF-SS Playoffs
Girls beach volleyball was introduced as a CIF-sanctioned sport in 2022, and with enough team participation, CIF-SS hosted its first playoffs in the spring of 2023. San Clemente opened those CIF-SS playoffs with a win in the Division 1 wild-card round to cement its spot in history. The Tritons swept the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 pairs with ease to down Harvard-Westlake, 4-1.
MAY
Fred Swegles, Beth Sanden Inducted to San Clemente Sports Wall of Fame
Legendary writer and photographer Fred Swegles and world-record handcycle marathoner Beth Sanden were the 28th and 29th additions to the San Clemente Sports Wall of Fame at the San Clemente Aquatics Center at Vista Hermosa Sports Park. Swegles, who died in 2022, spent 56 years covering sports and other local accolades for San Clemente newspapers including SC Times, and Sanden has earned numerous world records as an incomplete paraplegic competing as a handcycle marathoner all over the globe.
SCHS Junior Foursome Wins CIF State Championship’s First-Ever 4×800-Meter Relay
In the first running of the 4×800-meter relay in CIF State Championship history, four Triton juniors–Brett Ephraim, Jackson Brownell, Pierce Clark and Taj Clark–won the event’s inaugural state title by just over a half-second. San Clemente also won the inaugural CIF-SS Masters title in the event to qualify for state. The 4×800-meter relay was the first addition to the CIF State program since girls pole vault in 1995.
Noah Sech Wins CIF-SS Breaststroke Title
With an All-American time of 54.66 seconds, Princeton-bound swimmer Noah Sech won his first CIF-SS championship in the Division 1 boys 100-yard breaststroke. In 2022, Sech finished fifth in the event and was the first Triton to qualify for the state championships since 2015. On the girls side, Madelyn Phillips and Zoe de Fabrique also qualified for the state championships.
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JUNE
Pro Pickleball Comes to San Clemente for Back-to-Back Events
San Clemente became the center of the professional pickleball world this June, as Life Time Rancho San Clemente hosted events for the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball on consecutive weekends. It was the third straight year of the Orange County Cup and the individual-based PPA Tour coming to San Clemente. For MLP, it was its first season coming to San Clemente for its Season One Finals.
OCTOBER
Aiden Rubin Sets Single-Game, Single-Season Rushing Records for Triton Football
It was an explosive senior season for Aiden Rubin, who grabbed the reins of the starting running back position with full force. On Oct. 6, Rubin set the program’s single-game rushing record with 271 yards on 24 carries with three touchdowns in a 42-13 win at Ayala of Chino Hills. Rubin would go on to run for single-season records of 1,738 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns, including at least 126 yards and a score in each of the last nine regular-season games.
SCHS Football Wins at Mission Viejo for First Time Since 1998
Rubin ran for his third consecutive 240-yard game, the Tritons defense held the Diablos without a third-down conversion, and Max Gonzales iced the game with a pick-6, as San Clemente won on the road at Mission Viejo, 20-10, for the first time since 1998. San Clemente has won three of its past six games against Mission Viejo after a 19-year winless streak. With subsequent wins over Capistrano Valley and Tesoro, the Tritons also claimed the final South Coast League title ahead of the introduction of computer rankings-based leagues next season.
NOVEMBER
SCHS Boys Cross Country Wins Back-to-Back CIF-SS Titles, First State Title
The banner year for San Clemente distance running continued from the track in the spring to cross country in the fall. The Tritons’ boys won their second consecutive CIF-SS Division 1 championship by placing three runners in the top 10 and all five scoring runners in the top 25 with the second-best team time across all divisions. San Clemente broke through the next week in Fresno with the program’s first-ever CIF State Championship with three runners in the top 10 and all five scoring runners in the top 27. Brett Ephraim finished third at CIF-SS and second at state.
