Simi Valley Prep Swimmer Makes a Splash With Fourth-Place Finish--Minus Trunks

Simi Valley High School swimmer David Cruser dived into the water to start a race Wednesday during a meet against Royal High. Thoughts of victory danced in his head. Unfortunately, at the same moment, his bathing suit was dancing around his ankles.

Just a few yards into the race, the suit slid all the way off and slowly sank to the bottom of the pool. Cruser swam all 3 1/2 laps of the 100-meter freestyle, finishing fourth and bringing new meaning to the word freestyle.

“I hit the water, and it slipped right to my ankles,” Cruser, 16, said. “I wanted to stop and pull them back up, but then I decided just to kick ‘em off and keep going. I was timed in a minute, but I would have been down around 58 seconds except for the turns.

“I couldn’t do the flip turns because I didn’t want to expose myself to everybody in the stands. So, on the turns I just kind of bunched myself up.”

Cruser was in Lane 1, closest to the stands. About 150 spectators, immediately noticing Cruser’s problem, stood up, cheering and laughing.

Also witness to the incident was Simi Valley swim Coach Honey Lanning, who said: “This is the spirit of this team. Nothing stops us.”