Southern Section Swimming : Mission Viejo Boys Defeat Woodbridge for Team Title

From the first event, the Mission Viejo and Woodbridge boys battled for first place the Southern Section Division I swimming championships at Belmont Plaza Friday night.

Mission Viejo finally prevailed, taking first place with 173 points. Woodbridge finished second with 143.

In the girls’ competition, Ventura Buena easily won with 221 points. Santa Barbara was second with 155 and Capistrano Valley third with 137.

Although Mission Viejo won the team title, there’s no doubt that world-class swimmer Derya Buyukuncu of Woodbridge was the main event, setting a national record and breaking two section Division I records.

Buyukuncu broke his national record in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 47.50. He swam 47.84 last year in the section finals.

Despite the 100 backstroke record, Buyukuncu was upset about his performance in the 50 freestyle.

“I wanted that national record bad,” he said. “But I held onto the blocks because I was worried about being (disqualified).”

During preliminaries of the 50 free, two swimmers were disqualified in their starts.

“It’s hard to get a good start when you’re worried about your start,” Buyukuncu said.

In any event, Buyukuncu still broke the Division I record of 20.51 that he set Thursday, finishing in 20.27.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Woodbridge Coach Dan Gains said. “He was off the block slow, but hey, 20.27 is not bad.”

And to leave one more legacy, Buyukuncu, 17, set a Division I 100 free record when he swam the first leg of the 400 free relay. His time of 43.85 shattered the record of Mission Viejo’s Eric Diehl, who swam 44.99 in 1991.

In other events, Matt Cornue of Villa Park edged Woodbridge’s Dawson Hughes to won the 200 freestyle in 1:40.46.

Irvine senior Jason Lezak, who was second in the 50 free (20.87), won the 100 free, swimming a personal best of 45.68, and defeating champion Cornue.

“I was starting to get tired at that last 25, but I held on,” Lezak said.

In the 100 butterfly, Mission Viejo’s Bart Sikora was able to hold on in the last 25 yards to beat Joey Johnson of San Marino in 50.11. Freshman Phillipe Demers of Santa Margarita, the only freshman to make it to any boys’ final, finished third in 50.62.

Sikora also won the 500 free in 4:27.70, more than four seconds faster than his preliminary time.

Cathy Carone of Capistrano Valley won the 100 butterfly in 57.81.

Amber Wines of Santa Ana Valley beat El Toro’s Katie Simmons to win the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.08.

Santa Barbara set a Southern Section Division I record in the 200 free relay in 1:37.82, breaking El Toro’s 1991 record of 1:37.95

Lindsay Gassner of Santa Barbara was named the girls’ swimmer of the meet.