STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : PREP SWIMMING ROUNDUP : Victory Over Foothill Gives Marina Gauge of This Year’s Talent

It’s time for a sigh of relief.

Before the start of the boys’ swimming season, Marina Coach John Wright weighed the swimmers he lost to graduation against those he had returning. Six key members of Marina’s 1993 Division I Southern Section team champion had moved on, and the outlook was questionable at best.

After a 97-73 nonleague victory over Foothill Friday at Tustin, Wright’s questions are beginning to answer themselves.

“I’m very pleased,” Wright said. “It was hard to tell where we’d be, but I’m really pleased.”

And for good reason. Not only did the victory give the Vikings a 4-0 start, Marina defeated Foothill without Section finalist Paul Liegeois and Section qualifier Blaine Morgan, club swimmers who leave today for a junior national meet in North Dakota.

Marina’s early success has surprised Wright. At last weekend’s Section Relays, Wright was thinking top five and the Vikings finished second to powerhouse Woodbridge.

“It helps give us an idea of our depth,” said Wright, who could easily have been talking about the Marina girls’ team.

The Marina girls matched the boys’ 4-0 record with a 123-46 victory over Foothill. For the Vikings, who swept the top three spots in four events, Alison Mijares, Kristi Rietzel and Adrienne Leight were double individual and double relay winners. Mijares easily won the 50-yard (25.07 seconds) and 100-yard (55.07) freestyles, Rietzel handily won the 200 (1:58.89) and 500 freestyles ((5:14.53) and Leight took home firsts in the 200 individual medley (2:15.71) and 100 breaststroke (1:12.46).

For the boys, Stever O’Rourke was the only individual double-event winner. O’Rourke won the 200 free (1:52.26) over teammate Spencer Miller by four seconds and his 4:59.85 in the 500 free was 14 seconds faster than Foothill’s Brian Brown.

But Foothill had some personnel shortages of its own. Water polo standout David Hay broke a leg two months ago and dipped his toe in a pool for the first time last week. Teammate David Katz, who is headed for the same junior national meet, has had some shoulder problems and was limited to one event--he won the 100 breast (1:01.36).

Foothill fell to 1-2, but its other loss was to reputable El Toro.

“We’ve had some tough competition. I think we gave them a pretty good run,” Foothill Coach Dave Simcox said. “But they’re real, they have a lot of depth.”

Marina won six events to Foothill’s five, but it was that deep bench, a Viking trademark, that hurt the Knights. Marina took first and second in two events and swept the 200 IM.

“That hurt us,” Simcox said.

In nonleague boys’ swimming:

Canyon 118, Fullerton 51--Junior Jeff Hamilton, a double winner in the 200 (2:00.53) and 500 freestyle (5:24.3), was also on two of the winning relays for Canyon (3-1).

In nonleague girls’ swimming:

Canyon 131, Fullerton 38--Freshman Laurie Osuna was a double winner in the 50 freestyle (26.8) and the 100 backstroke (1:12.8) for visiting Canyon (4-0).

Los Alamitos 106, La Serna 60--Adrienne Paradiese won the 200 freestyle (2:02.22) and 50 freestyle (26.16) and anchored victories in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays and Tatum Schubert won the 100 butterfly (1:01.78) and 100 backstroke (1:04.50) to lead visiting Los Alamitos (3-0).