PREP ROUNDUP : Irvine Wins Race, Loses Bid for South Coast Relays Title

“You go girl,” was how one Irvine teammate encouraged another before the start of the girls’ 6 X 50-yard freestyle relay at the South Coast Relays on Saturday morning at San Clemente.

She did, and so did the other five members of the Irvine relay team. Amy Aldinger, Gusti Lind, Jennifer Webb, Lana Kraus, Monica Huszcz and Wendy O’Brien swam fast enough--their time was 2 minutes 35.70 seconds--to set a meet record and erase the mark of 2:35.79 set a year ago by Capistrano Valley.

But as they had earlier this season in a dual meet against El Toro, defending Division I Southern Section champion, Irvine fell short of the meet championship, which the Chargers won, 178 points to Irvine’s 172. Mission Viejo was third with 152.

“We thought we had a good chance of winning,” said El Toro Coach Sheri Ross, whose Chargers won their third consecutive relay team title. “They really get pumped up for it.”

As did the Mission Viejo boys. The Diablos won four relays en route to a meet title with 194 points. Runner-up Capistrano Valley had 180 points and third-place Irvine scored 140.

Host San Clemente’s girls won the 400 medley relay and the 200 breaststroke relay. Irvine’s other victory came in the 200 butterfly relay, and El Toro’s Alice Park, Lindsey Rock, Katie Lowes and Christie Kennedy won the 400 freestyle relay (3:41.96). Park, Katie Simmons, Keri Wilson and Angela Toubeaux took the 200 medley relay (1:56.07).

Ross said the Chargers used the meet as a warm-up for next weekend’s Southern Section Relays at Long Beach Belmont Plaza, where they will attempt to win their fifth consecutive title. But undefeated El Toro (5-0) will have to do it without sophomore Lowe and freshman Kennedy, who will be in North Dakota for a junior national meet.

El Toro expects another stiff challenge from Irvine, which the Chargers defeated by eight points in the earlier meet and by six points Saturday.