PREP ROUNDUP : Mission Viejo on Top When Dust Settles

The scoring table was the last place swimmers wanted to be if they were looking for the results of Wednesday’s South Coast League meet between Mission Viejo and Capistrano Valley.

In fact, Capistrano Valley’s Cathy Carone, who won the 50-yard freestyle, wasn’t sure how she fared in the 100 back long after the last relay was finished.

“I still don’t know who won,” Carone said.

Mission Viejo’s Cheryl Murphy did; she also won the 200 free. Her official time of 58.78 seconds in the 50 was hand-timed--there was no electronic timing--by Mission Viejo students serving detention.

“Actually, they did a pretty good job,” Capistrano Valley girls’ Coach Bob Skelley said of the job the timers did in a otherwise unorganized meet.

At the end of the day, it was eventually sorted out that the Mission Viejo boys were 99-66 winners over Capistrano Valley and that the Mission Viejo girls were 97-75 victors, although scoring wasn’t available until several hours after the meet.

Skelley was unhappy with the meet for several reasons, but nothing angered him more than when Linsey Sommers jammed her knee on the gutter as she started the 100 back.

According to Skelley, the official starter for the meet didn’t give the girls sufficient time to get in position to start the event and Sommers injured her knee as she rushed to get ready.

“She ended up stopping halfway through the race and finished last,” Skelley said. “And she was limping around after the meet.”

It also irked Skelley that Capistrano Valley’s Michael Braun was given a warning by the starter after Braun, who was to swim the next event, jumped in the water to try to help Sommers out of the water.