Larsen Churns Out 56 1/2 Points to Lead Harvard to 2nd : High school swimming: Strong showing by versatile junior enables Wolverines to finish behind San Luis Obispo in Division III girls’ final.

Alexis Larsen of Harvard-Westlake High got more than even Saturday in the Southern Section Division III girls’ swimming final.

A day earlier in the preliminaries, she was stunned when her divisional record-setting time of 2 minutes 6.13 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley lasted only three minutes. Ginny Farmer of San Luis Obispo broke the mark with a time of 2:05.76 in the very next heat.

But Larsen turning in a blistering 2:03.99 time in the final to easily beat Farmer and the rest of the field.

Larsen added a victory in the 500 freestyle (4:50.07) and anchored relay teams that finished first in the 400 freestyle and second in the 200 freestyle. That gave Larsen 56 1/2 points for swimmer of the meet honors and pushed Harvard to second in the team standings.

Less than 20 minutes after the 500 concluded, the versatile junior turned in an exceptional 24.66 split on the anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay to help the Wolverines to second place (1:44.91).

With Harvard in fourth and trailing Cerritos by four points and Ontario by two going into the final race, Larsen clocked laps of 29.57 and 26.89 on the last leg of the 400 freestyle relay to win the event and lift the Wolverines to second overall.

San Luis Obispo won with 143 points; Harvard had 107. Ontario was third at 101 and Cerritos placed fourth with 93.

Among other area teams, Alemany was seventh with 63, La Reina was 14th with 35, Louisville was 16th with 27 and Notre Dame finished 19th with 23.

“She reeled them in,” Harvard Coach Darlene Bible said of Larsen’s final leg. “The amazing thing about Alexis is she has so much energy. We can’t work her out hard enough.”

Bible also was impressed with the work of the rest of her team, which managed second place with only six swimmers.

Melissa Bergman, Helicia Paz and Kristin Olson joined Larsen on the championship 400 freestyle relay team. Bergman, Christa Choe and Emily Dashiell helped the Wolverines earn second in the 200 freestyle relay.

Paz, one of three freshmen along with Dashiell and Olson, also was seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:02.10).

It was hard for Larsen to think much beyond her individual medley record, however. “After Ginny’s race in the preliminaries, I didn’t know if I would be able to beat her in the final,” Larsen admitted. “I was real excited with my time. I never thought I’d be that fast.”

Larsen trailed Farmer by 16 hundredths of a second after the backstroke, but a 31.35 split on the breaststroke gave Larsen the lead.

Sandy Scott of Alemany finished second in the 100 breaststroke (1:06.27), and Michelle Hall of Notre Dame was fourth. Hall was third in the 100 freestyle (52.70) and helped the Indians claim sixth in the 200 medley relay.

Santa Clara finished first among area boys with 24 points, good for 20th place in the team competition won by Laguna Hills (144 1/2). Calabasas was 28th with 13 and Villanova was 35th with five.

Lindsay Gassner of Hart turned in the third-fastest high school time in the nation this year with a 23.40 mark in the Division II girls’ 50 freestyle. But Gassner had to settle for a silver medal when Arcadia’s Lonna Stacey finished with the nation’s best time at 23.16.

Gassner also finished second to Stacey in the 100 freestyle, 50.31 to 50.69.

Charles Girdlestone of Santa Clara came within one-hundredth of a second of winning the boys’ Division III 100 backstroke, falling to Ernesto Jiminez of Bellflower, who won with a 50.88 time.