Beard, Ronson Help Irvine Sweep Sea View League Meet Titles

Irvine’s Amanda Beard and Steve Ronson combined to set three individual meet records and help the Vaqueros to sweep the boys’ and girls’ Sea View League titles Friday at the Heritage Aquatic Complex.

The Irvine girls avenged last year’s close loss to El Toro. The top-ranked Vaqueros won all three relays and half the individual events to earn 596 points.

El Toro finished second with 403 points and Corona del Mar was third with 307.

Beard, who is on the U.S. Olympic team, started the Irvine charge by winning the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute 3.83 seconds. She broke her record of 1:04.15, which she set Tuesday in preliminaries. Beard, a freshman, also broke the 200 individual medley record by more than three seconds, winning in 2:07.33.

Beard also swam on two of Irvine’s three winning relay teams. She joined Amy Aldinger, Heidi Kraus and Wendy O’Brien to win the 200 medley relay in 1:48.99. She, Heide and Lana Kraus and O’Brien won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:37.33 to top a record they set Tuesday.

O’Brien won the 50 freestyle in 24.14 and the 100 freestyle in 52.30. Both times lead the county this season.

El Toro senior Katie Lowes won the 200 free in 1:54.81, and teammate Summir Case won the 100 backstroke in 1:01.58. Charger freshman Lara Reaves upset Irvine’s Heidi Kraus in the 100 butterfly, winning in a county-best time of 59.45. Santa Margarita’s Siobhan Herlihy won the 500 free in 5:07.44.

The Irvine boys won their second consecutive league title with 564 points, followed by Santa Margarita (499) and Corona del Mar (321).

Ronson’s record came in the 100 breaststroke, where his time of 57.04 broke a record he set Wednesday in preliminaries. Ronson, who also won the 200 individual medley in 1:54.04, set a meet record in the event Wednesday (1:53.33). Ronson also swam on two of Irvine’s winning relays.

Santa Margarita won six individual events. Junior Philippe Demers set records in the 200 freestyle (1:41.31) and the 100 butterfly (50.10). Teammate John Patterson won the 50 (22.21) and 100 freestyles (48.64).