Prep Swimming : Top Teams to Compete in Foothill Invitational

Tom DeLong, Foothill High School’s swimming coach, can’t help but be impressed with the list of boys’ and girls’ teams entered in the 18th Foothill Invitational.

The meet, which begins with the boys’ preliminaries today at 3 p.m. at Foothill and runs through Saturday, features top teams and individual swimmers from the Southern Section.

In the boys’ competition, Capistrano Valley, Foothill and Villa Park, all top 4-A teams, will compete, as well as 3-A powerhouses El Dorado and San Marino.

In the girls’ competition, Capistrano Valley, El Toro, Foothill and Marina are the top 4-A teams entered, and El Dorado, Los Alamitos and San Marino are the leading 3-A teams.

“This may be a preview to the 4-A championships,” DeLong said. “You have three of the top four boys’ teams and four of the top five girls’ teams. Everyone except Mission Viejo is entered.”

The Diablos, perennially one of the top teams in the Southern Section, will be at Mission Viejo High School on Saturday, when they will hold their own meet, starting at 9 a.m.

Jan Most, the Mission Viejo girls’ coach, said there was no choice but to schedule the meet for Saturday. With South Coast League finals approaching, followed by the Southern Section meet, plus the Diablos’ commitments to other meets, April 23 was the only date possible, she said.

“There are only so many weekends to work with, and because Easter fell where it did, there was no choice,” Most said.

Most had hoped that the girls’ teams from El Dorado, which features Olympic hopeful Janet Evans, and Capistrano Valley would compete in the Mission Viejo meet. However, both have decided to enter the Foothill meet.

El Dorado has won the girls’ team title at Foothill the last two seasons, but a third title may be hard to get. Even with Evans, who holds world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle, El Dorado lost to Los Alamitos, 96-59, in an Empire League dual meet on April 7.

Los Alamitos is led by Stacy St. Martin, who will compete in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles on Saturday.

Evans is entered in the 500 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Her competition in the 500 freestyle will include St. Martin, Christian Otto of Liberty Christian, Cindy Focht of El Toro and Sionainn Marcoux of Foothill. St. Martin, Otto, Focht and Marcoux also are the favorites in the 200-yard freestyle.

“It’s going to be fierce in the 200 and 500,” DeLong said. “They are certain to be the highlight events. You will see times that are comparable to a Southern Section final.”

The 200 and 500 freestyles also are the strong events in the boys’ competition. Greg Larson of Villa Park, David Gillespie of Damien and Ron Scott of Foothill are among the top swimmers entered in both events.

At the Mission Viejo meet, only four Orange County teams are entered--Mission Viejo, Dana Hills, Trabuco Hills and Esperanza. However, several top teams from Southern California are entered, including Mount Carmel (San Diego), Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.

“We used to get some of the top teams from Northern California, too,” Most said. “But they changed their season around and hold league finals around this time.”