Gilman Helps Buena Girls Swim Off With Team Title

It didn’t take long for the Buena High girls’ swimming team to establish itself as the school to beat in the Southern Section Division I championships.

The Bulldogs, led by freshman Rebecca Gilman, swept the first three events Friday night at Belmont Plaza to take a commanding lead for the team championship.

Gilman won two individual events and swam a leg on a winning relay to lead the Bulldogs to a convincing team victory with 221 points, 66 points over second-place Santa Barbara.

Buena dominated the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, defeating second-place Los Alamitos by more than two seconds with an All-American time of 1:48.77.

After the first three events, the Bulldogs already had a 51-point lead over the next-closest team.

In the second event, Gilman came from behind in the final 50 yards to win the 200-yard freestyle in 1:49.21, only .09 ahead of Katie Lowes of El Toro.

“When I got to 150 (yards) and saw her ahead, I’d thought I’d lost.” Gilman said. “I’m usually better in longer races but I’ve been doing better in the 200 lately.”

Later in the evening, Gilman showed she hadn’t lost her touch in the longer distances by winning the 500-yard freestyle by more than four seconds, with a time of 4:53.05.

Sophomore Melissa Roarty had the second-slowest preliminary time in the 200 individual medley, but still won from the outside lane for the Bulldogs.

Buena senior Mandy Walz won the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.58. Walz also finished second in the 100 butterfly.

John Lory won the first title for the Buena boys’ team with a time of 1:52.11 in the 200 IM.

“We’re not as deep as the girls and we don’t have the relays but we’re still strong,” Lory said.

Buena was the highest area boy’s team, tied for seventh place. Royal finished ninth among girls.