Newport Harbor boys’ swimming again steps up against Los Alamitos

Senior Nick Halphide said the Newport Harbor High boys’ swimming team has not lost the 200- or 400-yard freestyle relay in a dual meet in more than two years.

As a team made up mostly of water polo players, the Sailors believe in their abilities in the freestyle.

“That’s just something that we have a lot of pride in,” Halphide said. “It doesn’t matter how tired everyone is, everyone steps up for those relays. There’s so much legacy behind it that we feel a need to uphold. It gets us hyped in a completely new way.”

The Sailors again won both of the freestyle relays in Tuesday’s home Sunset League showdown against Los Alamitos. The 200 free relay win gave Newport Harbor its first lead since early in the meet, and the 400 free relay secured a 88.5-81.5 victory over the Griffins.

Both teams entered undefeated in league, but it was defending league champion Newport Harbor that secured its second straight 5-0 league dual meet season over Los Alamitos (4-1 in league). The Griffins did the same on the girls’ side, as the Sailors dropped to 4-1 with a 95-75 loss.

Newport Harbor’s boys beat Los Alamitos 407-405 last year at league finals, after a recount. The teams are again fairly close. The Griffins held a slight lead most of the meet before Halphide, senior Jason Grew, junior Michael Paduano and senior Max Sandberg won the 200 free relay in 1 minute 27.90 seconds, just ahead of the Griffins’ quartet of Brandon Toland, Sullivan Moore, Luca Costa and Gabriel Browning (1:28.06).

“I just wanted to win,” said Sandberg, who split a 21.2 as the anchor leg. “We’ve haven’t lost that relay in two years and I didn’t plan on losing it. I knew that relay was super-important to throw the points of the meet and really put us ahead. I just hate losing … and I made sure I wasn’t going to lose.”

Sophomore Reed Stemler (57.28) and Grew (57.89) followed with personal-best times in the 100 backstroke, and their 1-2 finish gave the Sailors an 11-point lead. They clinched the win when Halphide, Stemler, Grew and Sandberg won the 400 free relay in 3:13.67.

Halphide won the 200 freestyle (1:44.58) and the 100 butterfly (53.29) for Newport Harbor, while Sandberg captured the 100 free (48.19).

“Los Al’s going to be even hungrier for [the league title] next week,” Grew said. “We need to come back even stronger … I think league really matters for us this year, even more than last. We won league for water polo, and now we want to do it again for swimming just to prove our dominance.”

Los Alamitos was too strong on the girls’ side, although the Sailors won five individual events and two relays. Ayla Spitz won the 200 IM in 2:05.44 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.83, while her twin sister Zoe won the butterfly (57.10) and the backstroke (58.51).

Dinny Stevens won the 500 freestyle in a season-best 5:14.20 for the Newport Harbor girls.

But the Griffins, who had senior Sydney Rouse win the 50 and 100 free and senior Bayley Weber win the 200 free and finish second in the butterfly, were too strong.

Sailors girls’ coach Brian Melstrom said he forecast a 10-point Los Alamitos win prior to the meet, but that was actually doubled. He said it was still the closest he had finished against the Griffins in his 10 years in charge.

Newport Harbor swims at rival Corona del Mar in the annual Battle of the Bay meet on Thursday. The Sunset League preliminaries are scheduled for May 2 at Golden West College, with the finals set for May 4.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo