Foothill Swimming Invitational : Arroyo Finally Has Right Touch : Boys’ Swimmer of Meet Leads Villa Park to Relay Win

The anchor leg of the boys’ 400-yard freestyle relay is a touchy subject for Villa Park High School’s Gavin Arroyo.

It seems his touch has been a tad late recently.

“I lost (the relay) to Foothill by a tenth of a second and at San Marino I got out-touched again,” Arroyo said.

But Arroyo touched first Saturday at the Foothill Invitational Swim Meet to give Villa Park the victory in that event.

Capistrano Valley was the overall-combined winner with 360 points and it also won the girls’ team division with 241. Host Foothill won the boys’ division with 144 and Villa Park was second at 133.

Arroyo was obviously pleased to let someone else fret over a close second-place finish.

“It was nice to come back and out-touch somebody else for a change,” he said.

Arroyo’s split was timed at 46.18 seconds, which would have been fast enough to give him a victory in the 100-meter freestyle. That would have been his fourth victory of the meet.

As it was, Arroyo was voted by the coaches as the boys’ Swimmer of the Meet, a mere formality, as he won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:43.49 and the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:47.10.

He was the only double-winner among the boys. The only double-winner among the girls was also named Swimmer of the Meet: Janet Evans of El Dorado, who added the award to her considerable list, which includes three Olympic gold medals.

“I didn’t expect this (award),” Arroyo said. “I knew there was good competition coming in with (David) Gillespie and (Ryan) Cox. I approached today to win.”

The approach worked swimmingly as Arroyo, a junior, had personal bests in each event.

“I haven’t shaved or tapered yet. It scares me a little (that he might be peaking too early in the season), but I’m trying to stay positive,” Arroyo said.

For Evans, one would think the problem would not be staying positive as much as staying awake considering that she was so far ahead of her competition.

She won the 200 individual medley in a meet-record time of 2:05.7. Who held the meet record? You have to ask?

She failed to break her own record in the 500 freestyle, however, settling for a near-length-of-the-pool victory and a time of 4:45.09.

“I felt really tired,” Evans said of the 500. “After I passed Amy (Shaw), I was just swimming (instead of trying for a faster time).”

After passing Shaw, she was just winning.

Shaw led Capistrano Valley team as she finished second in the 500, first in the 200 freestyle and started off Capistrano Valley’s 400-yard freestyle relay team that won with a meet-record time of 3:34.00.

That relay already had collected four first-place finishes, three seconds and a third before it hit the water. Lisa Jacob, swimming the second leg, won the 100 butterfly and took third in the 500 freestyle; Lorenza Munoz, swimming third, won 100 breaststroke and was second in the 200 individual medley, and anchor Christy Carolyn won the 50 freestyle and was second in the 100 freestyle.