Newport boys’ swim takes sixth at CIF state meet

FRESNO — Newport Harbor High junior Jason Grew called the Sailors boys’ swimming quartet that went to the CIF State Swimming Championships a “ragtag” group, and he wasn’t kidding.

“We have two water polo players [in Grew and Max Sandberg], and one of them is a goalie,” Grew said in a phone interview. “And then we have one guy [junior Nick Halphide] who has been doing [club] swim team for just a year. Then we have another guy, our senior Reece Hemmens, our ‘anchorman,’ who just kind of led us through it.”

Bringing four swimmers to the final meet of the year doesn’t seem like a good strategy to rack up points. But the Sailors did that Saturday, going out in big fashion.

The four swimmers set the school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay and placed sixth in the state as a team at Clovis West High. They were the highest-placing team from Orange County on the boys’ side at state.

“It feels great,” Halphide said. “We all came up here and competed, even though we were pretty outnumbered in swimmers. We only had four guys, but we all came out here and did our best. I feel really good about it.”

Halphide, Sandberg, Grew and Hemmens touched in a school-record 1:23.40 to place third in the state in the 200 free relay. They broke the school record of 1:23.65 that Halphide, Sandberg, Michael Paduano and Hemmens set at Sunset League finals.

The same quartet then came back to place fifth in the 400 free relay in 3:05.69, just off their time from Friday’s preliminaries.

Sandberg split a 20.64 in the 200 free relay, leading to his teammates calling him the fastest water polo goalie in the state of California.

“The guys motivate me to do my best, and I just love to race and I love to win,” Sandberg said. “Putting in the hard work playing two sports, it means something. It comes down to just swimming with your best friends, and it’s something I love to do.”

Individually, Halphide got moved into the championship final of the 100 freestyle when another swimmer scratched. Halphide placed eighth in 45.88.

“I was so stoked,” said Halphide, who owns the school record in the event, a 45.69. “It was a little bit nerve-wracking, because it was a really, really fast heat. But I went out there and competed. I felt great about the way I swam.”

Hemmens placed 11th in the 100 free (a personal-best 45.93) and he was 14th in the 50 free in 21.25.

The other local swimmer to compete at Saturday’s state finals was Laguna Beach junior Kasey Karkoska, who was 14th in the girls’ 100 backstroke in 56.19.

Other local club swimmers and teams again chose not to come to the state meet, but Newport Harbor’s boys’ swim team has had a good time up in Fresno all three years that the meet has been in existence. This year, the Sailors also won the Sunset League for the first time since 2010.

“Maybe part of it is the road trip, but this meet is so much fun,” Halphide said. “I think we’re going to do it every single year we make it now. I know a lot of teams don’t, and I wish more would, but it’s just a fantastic experience.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo