CdM edged at the end

For the second straight week, the Corona del Mar High boys’ swim team went into the final event with a chance to win a Pacific Coast League meet.

For the second straight week, the Sea Kings didn’t touch first in the meet-ending 400-yard freestyle relay.

And yet, for the second straight week, CdM Coach Barry O’Dea came away mostly pleased with his team’s performance.

On Wednesday, the Sea Kings just ran into Northwood’s blazing fast sophomore Hunter Hitchens. He made his season debut and swam a blazing 46.10 split in that last relay, leading Northwood to a dramatic come-from-behind victory as the Timberwolves boys won, 86-84, at CdM.

Northwood’s girls completed the sweep with a 95-75 victory.

The boys’ meet was tied at 78-78 heading into the 400 free relay, so whoever won it would capture the meet. Northwood Coach Alex Nieto, who beat CdM on the boys’ side for just the second time in his eight years in charge, knew that Hitchens was the ace up his sleeve.

“He’s an all-star, man,” said Nieto of Hitchens, who also won the 200 and 500 freestyle events. “I know Hunter’s got that knack to really be a good, strong anchor. He really does know how to come through for his teammates. I can’t tell you [the victory] was for sure, but I can tell you that we had a good feeling coming into it. All I could ask the boys was to keep it as close as possible for Hunter.”

CdM’s Ethan Archer, Vincent Ong and Foster Hoose built up a lead through the first three legs against Northwood’s Hwa Min Sim, Henry Wu and Gabe Muñoz. Hitchens jumped in the water with his team trailing by 1.36 seconds. But he caught up to, and passed, CdM’s Tanner Roletter in the final 25 yards as Northwood won in 3:11.79.

The Sea Kings dropped to 2-2 in league, while Northwood improved to 3-1. Still, O’Dea couldn’t be upset about his team’s 3:12.23 in the event. It was a season-best by more than five seconds, besting the time in last week’s tight 89-81 loss at defending league champion University.

Archer is the CdM boys’ only top-level club swimmer this year, as Michigan-bound senior Tim Hanson is out with a shoulder injury. Northwood, by comparison, has eight athletes on the boys’ side alone who swim club for Irvine Novaquatics. But O’Dea prefers to call his team members high-level two-sport athletes, instead of just water polo guys.

“[Hitchens] went a 46.10,” O’Dea said. “That’s fast, and kudos to him. If Tanner was year-round swim training, he’d be going a 46 flat, but he’s not doing it full-time, year-round. I’m more impressed with what Tanner’s doing. I expect club swimmers to be putting up times ... [Roletter] made a great turn, and that’s something that we’ve been working on, right, because it’s not something that he’s doing 12 months a year. He did have a great turn, and by the end of the season, he’s not going to run out of gas right there.”

CdM’s Archer, Ryan Schildwachter, Jon Polos and Ong won the 200 medley relay in a season-best 1:37.18. Polos (22.14) and Roletter (22.22) went one-two in the 50 freestyle for CdM, as did Hoose (48.24) and Roletter (49.48) in the 100 free. Archer won the 100 backstroke in 53.56, and was second in the 100 butterfly. Schildwachter won the 100 breaststroke in a personal-best 59.47.

“We’re putting up some good times,” said Schildwachter, a sophomore who was a set guard on the frosh-soph team this year in boys’ water polo. “But we want to win these [meets], definitely. We’re all friends and we all push each other.”

O’Dea said that the fourth- and fifth-place finishers in the breaststroke, sophomores Hayden Roletter (1:04.46) and Jacob Humbert (1:04.64), also had their best swims of the season. The Sea Kings won the event, 9-7, to pull into the 78-78 tie.

Henry Wilde, another sophomore, was third in the 500 free (5:05.64) and 100 back (56.99) for the Sea Kings.

If anything, what fired O’Dea up a bit more was that Northwood sang its alma mater on the pool deck after the meet.

“That’s two really good meets in a row for us right there,” O’Dea said. “We gave them a run for their money. If they want to come on our pool deck and start singing the alma mater like that, then we shouldn’t hear anybody complaining when it comes to another sport of the year and we have a little bit of fun with that as well. But we’ll see them at league finals.”

Muñoz won the 200 IM and 100 fly to also lead Northwood (3-1 in league).

On the girls’ side, Nieto said he beat CdM for the first time in his tenure. The Sea Kings fell to 1-3 in league but also had some good swims. Like the boys, CdM girls’ Coach Doug Volding has just one top club swimmer in Nicole Lin, who won the 50 freestyle (24.92) as well as the 100 breaststroke (1:07.39).

CdM’s Jaleh Moaddeli won the 500 freestyle (5:24.37) and was second in the 100 free (55.30), both times personal-bests. Chloe Harbilas was second in the 50 free (25.96), as was Bridgett Storm in the 200 free (2:03.29).

The 200 free relay was also a highlight for the Sea Kings girls, who claimed the top two spots. The “A’ relay of Lin, Harbilas, Sophie Wallace and Storm touched in 1:43.87, and the “B” relay of Tia DiGiovanni, Natalie Summerford, Sarah Lawson and Moaddeli finished in 1:49.59.

CdM plays host to Irvine in its final league dual meet next Wednesday, then will race rival Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay meet on Thursday.