THE PREPS : SWIMMING ROUNDUP : Foothill Happy to Stay Close to Top-Ranked Mission Viejo

Foothill Swim Coach Dave Simcox laughed after his second-ranked Knights lost to No. 1 Mission Viejo in a nonleague boys’ meet Friday at Foothill High.

After all, considering the Diablos are fielding perhaps the strongest team in the school’s history and have one of the nation’s top high school swimmers, the 236-210 score could have been worse.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Simcox said after the meet. “Nobody’s going to touch these guys at CIF. It’s going to be more of a battle for second place. I can see the T-shirts now at CIF finals: ‘We took second to Mission Viejo at CIF Championships.’ ”

While the meet was supposed to be a tri-meet--the Woodbridge boys were scheduled to participate--the Warriors didn’t show up, which upset Mission Viejo Coach Jack Pelton.

“I don’t understand why they (the Warriors) didn’t come,” Pelton said. “They said they would and it would have added to this meet.”

But even if Woodbridge did come, it wouldn’t have mattered. Mission Viejo would have swamped them too.

Junior Bart Kizierowski, a native of Poland who is ranked among the top five high school swimmers in the nation according to U.S. Swimming, made his swims look effortless, winning the 50 freestyle in 20.98 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 53.81. And his time on the first leg of the 400 freestyle relay (45.67) would be the fastest time in the county this year for the 100 freestyle.

In addition to Kizierowski, Mission Viejo (6-0) also had good swims from juniors Karl Hyross, Goh Phuangthong, Brandon Huie and sophomore James Davison.

Phuangthong was a double winner in the 500 free (4:42.76) and the 200 individual medley (1:57.22), Hyross won the 100 back (54.21), Huie took the 100 breaststroke (1:04.94) and Davison tied Foothill’s Robert Arroyo in the 100 free (49.20).

Mission Viejo won all three relays with Phuangthong, Huie, Kizierowski and Russel Rowlands taking the 200 medley relay (1:39.13); Ahmad Filsoof, Hyross, Huie and Rowlands winning the 200 free relay (1:30.72) and Kizierowski, Filsoof, Hyross and Goh taking the 400 free relay (3:20.00).

Mission Viejo didn’t win every event. Foothill freshman James Thornton had an impressive 200 free, winning in 1:48.25. And in the 500 free, he almost caught Phuangthong in the last 50 yards, but couldn’t hold his pace and took second.

In nonleague boys’ swimming:

Canyon 101, Troy 70--Junior Greg Cieszko won the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke, and swam on the winning 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams for Canyon (6-1).

Brea Olinda 94, Sonora 76--Andy Wyse won the 50 freestyle and the 500 freestyle, and swam on both the winning 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay teams for Sonora.

In nonleague girls’ swimming:

Canyon 113, Troy 56--Senior Nicole Luque won the 200 individual medley and the 500 freestyle for Canyon (5-2).