Laguna Hills Uses 2nds, 3rds to Finish First

Laguna Hills Coach Susan Lord couldn’t bring herself to say it. But on paper, the Laguna Hills girls had a chance to win the Southern Section Division II swimming championships.

But as the night rolled on Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Pool, Lord’s caution started to give way to optimism.

And by the end of the breaststroke, Laguna Hills was clearly on its way to a section title with 196.5 points.

“This is the first time the girls have ever won at Southern Section,” said Lord, who was tossed into the pool by her team after the Hawks were declared the winners.

“I have a great bunch of kids swimming for me. And I’m not losing any of them next year.”

Although the Laguna Hills girls did not win any individual or relay events, the Hawks were able to finish second and third to rack up the points needed to finish high in the team standings.

The Laguna Hills boys just missed joining the girls to make it a sweep.

The boys had to settle for second as Los Angeles Loyola, which finished with 207 points, won the meet, followed by Laguna Hills (194) and El Dorado (173).

In the girls’ individual events, the county swept the 500 free with Alicia Thornton of Aliso Niguel winning in 5 minutes 2.76 seconds.

University’s Victoria Chang finished second (5:03.95) and Laguna Hills’ Nicole Wieland was third (5:05.70).

Tustin’s Mai-Khanh Nguyen finished more than a second ahead of Thornton to win the 200 individual medley in 2:09.22.

Anna Armstrong of Sunny Hills pulled ahead in the last 15 yards to beat Jann Stacey of Arcadia to win the 100 butterfly (58.87).

For Laguna Hills, Goh Phuangthong was key to the Hawks’ second-place finish.

Phuangthong, who will represent Taiwan in the Olympics, won the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke.

Phuangthong, who transferred from Mission Viejo High because his host family moved from that area, set a section record in the backstroke on Thursday with a time of 50.91.

His time in Saturday’s finals was 51.25. And in the 200 IM, Phuangthong’s winning time of 1:52.04 was almost three seconds faster than his time in the preliminaries.

“He’s [Phuangthong] very important in how we finished tonight,” Lord said.

“Without him, we would have finished in the top five. With him, he gave us a chance to maybe win.”

In other individual events, Fullerton’s Billy Brown set a section record in the 100 breaststroke, winning the event in 57.47.

Brown’s victory comes just one year after he failed to qualify for section finals.

Brian Malich of El Dorado won the 50 (20.78) and 100 freestyles. His time in the 100 free (45.15) is an All-American time.

Distance swimmer Tim Martin of Kennedy was outstanding in the 500 free, where he posted the fastest time in the event this year. His winning time of 4:26.08 is an All-American time.

Martin also did well in the 200 freestyle, dropping two seconds off his preliminary time to finish second (1:40.65).