Swimmer Ward Ready for Her Next Challenge : 3-A finals: Trabuco Hills senior, who won the 200 freestyle the past two years in the 2-A finals, will face tough assignments tonight at Belmont Plaza.

Amy Ward, a senior swimmer for Trabuco Hills High School, was preparing for the 400 freestyle relay during a recent dual meet.

It was to be an easy swim. Laguna Beach, the Mustangs’ opponent, didn’t have a girls’ relay team, so Ward knew she racing only against the clock.

But, at the last moment, it was decided to let the girls swim against the boys’ relay team--a common time-saving practice in dual meets. A thrill came over Ward, who was to swim the anchor leg.

“All of a sudden, my teammates were whispering about how great it would be to beat the guys,” Ward said. “I really started to get pumped up.”

Ward swam the last leg in just under 52 seconds. She overtook the Laguna Beach swimmer, and touched him out at the wall to win the race.

“I had to win,” Ward said. “It was a challenge.”

There’s nothing Ward loves more than a challenge. In fact, she thrives on it. During the past four years, Ward has been Trabuco Hills’ top swimmer. She has won the 200-yard freestyle the past two years at the Southern Section 2-A championship meet and has been second in the 500 freestyle twice in the past three years.

Sure, Ward has plenty of talent. But she has an overabundance of determination.

“When Amy is asked to do something difficult, she gets this fire in her eyes,” Trabuco Hills Coach Dave Gibson said. “You know she’ll get it done. She takes a challenge personally.”

Ward will encounter a couple of tough ones tonight in the 3-A finals at Belmont Plaza Pool.

First, she’ll face better competition than at the 2-A level. The Mustangs were moved up to 3-A this year with the rest of the Pacific Coast League.

To make things really tough, Ward is being asked to swim the 100 freestyle, which is far from her best event. Because the Mustangs have other swimmers who can do well in the 500 freestyle, Gibson moved Ward to the 100 to help the team.

And to make things even tougher, Ward will be up against San Marino’s Natalie Norberg in the 200. Norberg swam the second-fastest time in any of the Southern Section finals last year.

But is Ward worried? Hardly.

“I love these situations,” Ward said. “Who wants to win a race easily? I love the close races.”

That determination is second nature to Ward, who comes from a competitive family. Her sister, Krista, was a swimmer through high school; her mother, Jamie, is an avid tennis player and her father, Tim, plays a variety of sports.

So as a child growing up in Bend, Ore., Ward naturally sought out athletics.

“Going out and doing something is so much better than sitting on the couch and watching television,” said Ward, who has signed to swim at the University of Arizona next year. “I couldn’t get enough of sports when I was a kid.”

Ward has a wide range of interests. She has competed in soccer, track, gymnastics, tennis and volleyball. She even joined a club wrestling team when she was 7--just her and 55 boys.

But it was in swimming that Ward began to excel.

She joined the Bend Aquatic Club when she was 7, following her sister into the program. She soon became an accomplished age-group swimmer.

By the time she was 12, she had qualified for her first U.S. Swimming junior nationals and made the senior nationals when she was 13.

“At the time, I was one of only two girls to make it from Oregon,” Ward said. “I was a big fish in a little pond.”

Ward took the plunge into a bigger arena when she was in the eighth grade.

The previous summer, she had visited her grandmother in Laguna Beach. Ward wanted to continue her training, so she got permission to work out with the Mission Viejo Nadadores.

“It was a completely different atmosphere than I was used to,” she said. “In Oregon, I always stood out as a swimmer. There were so many great swimmers with the Nadadores that I felt a little lost. But I liked the competition.”

The Ward family moved to Mission Viejo the following year for a variety of reasons, one of which was the swimming careers of their daughters. Both swam for the Nadadores.

Krista and Amy also joined the Trabuco Hills team and helped the Mustangs win the 2-A championship in 1989.

Amy Ward finished second in the 200 and 500 freestyles as a freshman.

Although her high school career was going well, Ward was struggling with the Nadadores. She said she needed a break from the sport, so she stopped swimming year-round. She even left the Nadadores for two years to compete for Saddleback Valley Aquatics.

She took the fall off, playing tennis for Trabuco Hills instead.

However, her competitive spirit returned two years ago after she qualified for the Olympic Festival. Ward competed in the 200, 500 and 1,000 freestyles at the meet.

“She got to see the Olympic training center in Colorado and I guess it made a real impression on her,” Nadadore Coach Terry Stoddard said. “She came back (to the Nadadores) and told me she wanted to make the national team.”

Ward accomplished that this season. She will compete in the 800 freestyle relay in the World University Games this summer in England.

“When Amy sets her mind to something, she usually accomplishes it,” Stoddard said.

“We had a meet earlier this year where she was in the 1,650 and 100 freestyles, which were back-to-back. Amy swam the 1,650 and won her heat. A few minutes later, she got on the blocks for the 100, still breathing hard from her last race, and finished second. If that wasn’t enough, she swam in the 400 freestyle relay 45 minutes later and had a time of 52.7. It was a priceless performance.”

Ward will take that determination into the 3-A meet tonight, especially in the 200 freestyle.