Five Records Lowered in Section Swim Finals

Fast times at Mt. Carmel High.

As a crowd of 600 looked on, five records fell during Saturday’s San Diego Section swim finals.

Alison Terry of University of San Diego High and Mike Picotte of Mira Mesa High each broke two section records--in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles--and Christina Galdos, Kim Shirley, Trisha Ross and Jennifer Ross of Rancho Buena Vista broke the girls’ 200 medley relay mark that Poway had held for less than two days. (In Thursday’s preliminaries, Poway broke the record set by Torrey Pines in 1977.)

Poway won both the girls’ and boys’ team titles by a landslide. The Titan boys won their first title by outscoring Mira Mesa, 255.5-184. Poway, champions in 1987, defeated defending champion Rancho Buena Vista, 274.5 to 141.

Poway won just three individual events and a relay between the boys and girls but the Titans’ five boys’ individual finalists and three girls and relays all performed well.

But the day belonged to Terry and Picotte. Picotte also anchored Mira Mesa’s winning 400 freestyle relay.

Terry swam first in the 200, an event she has been swimming just one season, and pulled away from the field early, winning in 1:49.62 to better the 1:50.60 set by Point Loma’s Marilyn Peck in 1987.

“My 200 will get better,” Terry said. “I was surprised at how well I did considering that I just started swimming it this season. It’s not a major, major event for me.”

Terry considers the 100 more her speciality. So special that she decided to break that record twice in as many races. Thursday, Terry swam a 51.21 to beat Heather Merten’s two-year-old record of 52.19. Saturday, her time was 50.56. Mt. Carmel’s Merten, swimming two lanes away, finished fourth in 54.85.

“My most serious event is the 100,” said Terry, who won section championships in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke last year. “I like the 50 free a lot, but the 100 is really strong for me.”

The records were personal bests for Terry, who beat the second-place finishers by wide margins in both races.

“I was a really nervous because I really wanted the records,” she said. “I was a little fatigued (after the 100), but I just put my head down and went for it.”

Picotte felt good as he went for his records. He said all the conditions were right.

“The water felt good, the pool was fast, and I had a good taper,” Picotte said. “Everything felt good. It all worked out well.”

He managed to swim even faster than he thought he would. His time of 1:38.44 in the 200 bettered the one-year-old mark of Mt. Carmel’s Lars Jorgensen (1:39.89), and his 45.21 in the 100 eclipsed the 45.94 set by Steve Creamer of Granite Hill in 1983.

“My times were about where I thought they’d be,” he said, “maybe a little faster.”

Another double winner was UCLA-bound Matt Buckley, a senior from Helix. Buckley won the 200 individual medley (1:54.39) and the 500 freestyle (4:29.86).

“The 200 isn’t my main event, but it’s a nice race,” said Buckley, who is used to longer races. “It would have been nice to go a bit faster in the 500, but I’m still really happy.”

Granite Hills’ Michelle Butcher, last year’s section swimmer of the year, also won twice: the 200 individual medley (2:07.55) and the 500 freestyle (4:51.25).

Other than the short sprints, the closest races of the day were the 200 girls’ and boys’ medley relays.

The Poway girls swam a 1:53.88 to RBV’s 1:53.46; both were section records. The Poway boys edged University City, 1:40.22 to 1:40.89.