Mission Viejo Swimming Invitational : Jarocki Leads Mission Viejo to Title

Brad Jarocki won two events and anchored a winning relay team to lead the Mission Viejo High School boys’ swim team to its 16th straight Mission Viejo Invitational championship Saturday at the Marguerite Recreation Center.

Jarocki, who this week signed a national letter of intent to attend Brigham Young University, started by winning the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.32 seconds.

Jarocki, who won the 100-yard freestyle in 48.81, finished by turning in a strong anchor leg to hold off Brian Fischer of Laguna Hills and give the Diablos the victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The Mission Viejo team, which also included freshman Jeff Bloomer, sophomore Kerry Klassen and senior Brad Parsons, completed the distance in 3:21.41. Laguna Hills wound up second in 3:22.77 and Thousand Oaks was third in 3:26.55.

“The times he turned in weren’t that good for him, but considering the fact that we put the team through a 7,200-yard workout early (Saturday) morning, I thought he did well,” Mission Viejo boys’ Coach Mike Pelton said. “We also got some key points from some freshmen and sophomores as well which helped us win the meet.”

The Diablo boys finished the meet with 306.5 points. Miramonte High of Northern California finished second with 261 points and Poway came in third with 247 points.

Fischer, who signed a letter of intent with Syracuse on Friday, was named boys’ Swimmer of the Meet. He held off a challenge from runner-up Bloomer to win the 200-yard freestyle in 1:44.13.

Later, Fischer defeated Bloomer in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:38.36. Bloomer, who turned in a 1:44.74 in the 200 freestyle, had a 4:40.72 second-place time in the 500. St. Margaret’s John Blaney was third (4:49.11).

In the girls’ competition, Suzi Burt and Kathy Diebler each won two events to lead the Diablos to the team title.

Burt, who will attend Ohio State, usually competes in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 backstroke, but she started Saturday’s competition by winning the 50-yard freestyle in 24.88.

Later, she took an early lead and never lost it in winning the 500 freestyle in 4:59.73.

“I didn’t expect to go as fast as I did because I had a very heavy workout this morning and I was tired, but the times turned out to be very good,” said Burt, who was named the meet’s outstanding girls’ swimmer.

“She did a little bit better than we anticipated,” said Mission Viejo girls’ Coach Jan Most of Burt. “She swam very well considering that she was swimming in off events for her.”

Diebler’s victories came in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.76) and the 100-yard butterfly (59.55).

The Diablo girls, who also got a victory from Alison Wattles in the 200-yard individual medley (2:15.84), completed the competition with 434 points. Miramonte, the defending Northern California section champion, finished second with 407 points and Poway was third with 210 points.