Southern Section Swimming : Mission Viejo’s Boys Win, Girls’ 2nd.

Mission Viejo High School started its latest conquest of the Southern Section 4-A swimming championships by setting a section record it the boys’ 200-yard medley relay of 1 minute 35.23 seconds, breaking Long Beach Wilson’s nine-year-old record by .06 seconds.

The Diablos finished the night winning the boy’s 400-meter free-style relay in 3:07:68, some 6 1/2 seconds ahead of their closest competitor, Redlands. They celebrated the victory by tossing Coach Mike Pelton into the lane at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza Pool in which they had just won.

Pelton swan a short victory lap back to the poolside and--with the help of some swimmers--collected the first-place award for his team’s 226 points Capistrano Valley was second with 105 points and Corona del Mar third with 85.

Mission Viejo’s Frank Wattles took fist in the 100-yard butterfly (50.33), and Ernie Vela was first in the 100-yard backstroke (52.64).

“It’s hard to be champions,” Pelton said. “It’s four times as hard to keep repeating as champions.”

As the coach of a team that’s won 13 straight Southern Section titles, Pelton should know.

Mission Viejo girls’ finished second to Capistrano Valley Friday, the first time they have failed to win the Southern Section title in 11 seasons.

The meet was dominated by Orange County teams. Mission Viejo had 23 swimmers and all four relay teams in Friday’s finals. Capistrano Valley had 16 finalists and three relay teams involved. Mission Viejo often had two or more swimmers in each event.

Corona del Mar lacked the depth of some other leaders, but it had its bright spots. Jeff Thomason won both the 50- and 100-yard free-styles.

“These were the two best swims he has ever had,” said Corona del Mar Coach Mike Starkweather.