Foothill Invitational : Capistrano Valley Girls Regroup to Win; Foothill Boys Victorious

Any thoughts of Capistrano Valley High School being a one-girl swim team were put to rest Saturday.

Just two days after they lost star swimmer Amy Shaw for the remainder of the season, the Cougars put on an impressive display in the 18th Foothill Invitational at Foothill High School. Capistrano Valley outdistanced everyone, taking first place with 317 points, 143 points more than second-place Foothill.

Foothill won the boys’ competition, edging Villa Park, 179-170. But Capistrano Valley, on the strength of its girls’ score, won the combination championship with 469 points.

“We’re a well-balanced team. We don’t rely on one superstar,” Bob Gaughran, Capistrano Valley girls’ coach, said. “But I was really happy with the way the girls responded today. It was a positive experience after what has happened.”

Shaw, who holds the American record in the 200-meter breaststroke, was ruled ineligible Thursday after she competed in an international meet without seeking permission from the Southern Section. Under Southern Section rules, athletes must petition 30 days in advance and receive approval to compete in an international meet while their high school season is in progress.

But Shaw was hardly missed Saturday, as her teammates swam with a vengeance.

Capistrano Valley started the day by equaling the meet record in the 200-yard medley relay (1 minute 53.01 seconds), which was set by Foothill in 1983. And the Cougars finished by breaking El Dorado’s meet record in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:39.43).

“Losing Amy just puts a little responsibility on the rest of the team,” Gaughran said. “This is going to be our year.”

Christy Carolyn of Capistrano Valley set a meet record in the 50-yard freestyle (24.26) during the morning preliminaries, then won the final of the event in the afternoon (24.37). She also won the 100-yard freestyle (54.09).

Teammates Jennifer Sprogus won the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.69) and Amy Beier won the 100-yard butterfly (59.90).

Sprogus, who will take Shaw’s place in the 200-yard individual medley, knocked nearly three seconds off her time from the preliminaries. She also swam a strong second place in the 100-yard breaststroke.

But with El Dorado’s Janet Evans entered in the event, a strong second was a moral victory. Sprogus was even with Evans through the first 50 yards but finished two seconds behind.

“Evans swam the breaststroke before she became a distance swimmer,” said Don Cholodenko, whose Capistrano Valley boys’ team finished third with 152 points. “So for Jennifer to swim that close is outstanding.”

Evans, who holds world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyles, was selected as the outstanding female swimmer of the meet, as she set a meet record in the 500-yard freestyle (4:44.73).

But Evans, a junior, was more pleased with her victory in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.91). When she finished the race, she threw both arms in the air and smiled.

“I told my coach that I could swim a 1:05 today and he said maybe, if I tried,” Evans said. “That made it fun to swim and get it.”

In the 500-yard freestyle, Evans went ahead early and continued to stretch her lead throughout, breaking her 1987 record by nearly two seconds.

“I know it was a record, but I felt tight throughout,” she said. “I think it was the weather. I tried to stay warm, but it was almost impossible.”

Evans’ performance wasn’t enough, however, for El Dorado to challenge the team leaders. The Hawks had won the girls’ title the previous two years at Foothill but finished a distance sixth Saturday with 71 points.

The boys’ competition was far more competitive as Foothill and Villa Park swapped the lead throughout the day. Foothill came out on top with a strong performance in the finals.

“Going by the scores in the prelims, we would have been 11 points behind,” Foothill Coach Tom DeLong said. “But we were able to move up in nearly every event during the finals. We turned fifth-place finishes into third-place finishes.”

Foothill won just one championship heat but was consistently strong in nearly every event.

The one victory was by Ron Scott, who set a meet record in the 100-yard butterfly (51.75).

On Friday, in the boys’ preliminaries, Scott had come close to breaking the record, which was set by Ken Wills of Foothill in 1974. Scott swam a 51.92, just .02 off the record.

“I thought I might get it during the preliminaries,” Scott said. “It was my goal for the meet. After coming close, I knew if I could get off to a better start, I would break it.”

Scott swam a 24.0 for the first 50 yards, compared to a 24.2 during the preliminaries.

“That may not seem like much of a difference, but considering I was just .02 off the record in the prelims, it was more than enough,” Scott said.

However, Scott doesn’t plan to stop with the meet record. His ultimate goal is to break Brian Furniss’ school record in the 100-yard butterfly (50.8).

“He’ll get it in the Southern Section championships,” DeLong said. “I expect he’ll go under 50 then.”

Greg Larson of Villa Park was selected the outstanding boys’ swimmer after he won two individual events and anchored the Spartans’ winning 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Larson won the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.19) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:37.87).

“I came into the meet thinking I could win both events,” Larson said. “But last year, I felt the same way and lost to Darren Warren twice. He got the outstanding swimmer award.

“It was a real cold day today, but I felt I could pull it off. I won both events in the prelims, so all I had to do was swim the same or faster to win the finals.”

Kevin Eggert of Capistrano Valley also was a double winner, as he finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.53) and 200-yard individual medley (1:57.27).

“Kevin’s time in the 200 IM was really fast. He swam an outstanding race,” Cholodenko said. “But we only had one relay team qualify in each event. That will really hurt you against competition like this. We just didn’t have enough depth in our qualifiers to overtake Foothill and Villa Park.”