PREP SWIMMING : Jenkins Breaks Freestyle Record

John Jenkins of Crescenta Valley broke his state prep record with a time of 20.53 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle Saturday night during the CIF Southern Section Division II boys’ swimming championships at Belmont Shores.

Jenkins, a 6-foot-8 junior, set the record of 20.55 during Thursday’s preliminaries and shaved two-hundreths of a second off that time in the final.

Jenkins won the 100 freestyle in 45.92 and turned in a split of 19.79--the quickest prep split in state history--during the anchor leg of the 200 medley relay. Crescenta Valley won the race in 1:37.74.

Jeff Julian of Walnut also bettered his divisional record of 49.88 in the 100 butterfly, set during the preliminaries, with a 49.49 in the final. That tied Julian with the second-fastest prep time this year.

Lonna Stacey of Arcadia swam the fastest girls’ prep time of the year, 23.16, to win the 50 freestyle. She needed that time to hold off Hart’s Lindsay Gassner, whose 23.40 was the third fastest in the United States this season. Stacey also edged Gassner, 50.31 to 50.69, in the 100 freestyle.

Harvard-Westlake junior Alexis Larsen set a divisional record with a 2:03.99 in the Division III 200 individual medley.

Larsen also won the 500 freestyle (4:50.07) and anchored Harvard-Westlake’s winning 400 freestyle relay (3:43.80) and the 200 freestyle relay unit that placed second to Ontario.

With only six swimmers entered, Harvard-Westlake finished as runner-up to San Luis Obispo in the girls’ team standings, 143-107.

Claudia Stanescu of Ontario also came away with three gold medals for Division III girls, winning the 100 backstroke (55.40), the 100 freestyle (51.87) and helping Ontario to the 200 freestyle relay title (1:44.56). Ontario finished third in the team standings with 101 points.

Laguna Hills edged La Serna, 144.5-141.5, for the boys’ Division III title.