Demers Goes On the Record, Sets Two Marks

It was just another day for Philippe Demers, who set two individual meet records Saturday at the 25th annual Foothill Swim Games at Foothill High.

In addition to his record-breaking swims in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, Demers, a senior, also was the lead swimmer on Santa Margarita’s winning 200 freestyle relay team, which also set a record.

“He’s just phenomenal,” Santa Margarita Coach Rick Rowlands said. “When you think about it, he really didn’t have that much time to rest after he swam his first event, the 100 fly. It was boom, boom, boom, [his events coming] right after each other.”

Before swimming the 100 fly, Demers, who was named the boys’ swimmer of the meet, said he didn’t feel like he was in top shape. Yet he thought he had a chance to set some records. He would be going after his record in the fly, which he set last year, and John Simmons’ 1993 record in the 100 back.

In the fly, Demers exploded off the block and finished in 49.86, almost a second faster than his old mark of 50.96.

In the backstroke, Demers acknowledged this task would be a bit tougher as the 100 back wasn’t among his top events. Simmons, from El Toro, was one of Orange County’s top backstrokers. He’s a senior at Southern Methodist University.

“I don’t know. I’m not that close to the record. It’s going to be hard to get that one [100 back],” Demers said before the event. “I’ve been swimming the back pretty good lately. But I’ll give it a shot. If I get it, great.”

Seeded second behind Jarrod Cruzat of Servite going into the event at 54.72, Demers went to work with a great start and good turns to finish in a winning time of 51.10, which was .20 faster than Simmons’ 1993 time.

“Philippe is a real competitor,” Rowlands said. “It’s like whenever a record is involved, his antennas go up.”

His other record-breaking performance came in the 200 free relay. As the lead swimmer, Demers, along with teammates Andrew Jensen, Matt Shipstead and Frank Uxa, broke their record they set Friday during the preliminaries. Saturday, their time, 1:28.72, was .16 faster than Friday’s swim. And their Friday preliminary time broke San Marino’s 1991 record of 1:29.16. The other Santa Margarita swimmer to win an event was Uxa, who won the 50 freestyle (21.67).

Despite Demers’ outstanding swims, Santa Margarita could not catch Foothill, as the Knights led throughout the meet to win the boys’ competition with 230 points. Loyola was second (211) and Santa Margarita third (168).

James Thornton of Foothill turned in the second-fastest time in the county this year, winning the 200 freestyle in 1:45.32. Thornton also won the 500 freestyle (4:40.22) and teammate Robby Arroyo took the 100 free in 47.93. Daniel Kim of Irvine won the 100 breaststroke (58.88).

In the girls’ competition, top-ranked Irvine was saved by its depth as Fountain Valley just missed knocking off the defending champions.

The Irvine girls finished with 328 points, 26 points ahead of runner-up Fountain Valley, ranked second in the county. Marina was third with 113 points.

“It was our B relay teams that moved us up in points. That’s where our depth showed up in this meet,” Irvine Coach Scott Hinman said. “We got the good swims from our top girls. But we needed those others, to give us the win. I’ll tell you, Fountain Valley is one hell of a team, and they have a good shot at Southern Section next month.”

Olympic medalist and Irvine sophomore Amanda Beard had no trouble in her event, the 100 breaststroke, and won in 1:03.35. And though her time was almost a second slower than her record-breaking performance last year, it still was good enough to be the fastest time in the county this year. Beard, who was named female swimmer of the meet, won the 200 individual medley (2:06.59) in a tough race, which had Marina’s Kyoko Yokouchi finishing .24 behind Beard to take second.

Danielle DeAlva was another top performer for Irvine. Thursday during the preliminaries, DeAlva’s time of 57.08 in the 100 backstroke, set a meet record by breaking San Marino’s Natalie Norberg’s 1991 record of 58.93. DeAlva won that event Saturday in 57.29. DeAlva also won the 50 free (24.92).

Fountain Valley had four individual champions, including Jennifer McCoy, who won her events in the 200 (1:55.49) and 500 (5:03.95) freestyles; Grace Wang in the 100 freestyle (54.33) and Christine Motschman in the 100 butterfly (59.07).

At the Mission Viejo Invitational:

Mission Viejo boys win--Matt Burny won two individual events and was part of two winning relay teams as Mission Viejo won the invitational with 491 points. Burny won the 100 freestyle in 46.77 and the 50 freestyle (21.59).

In the girls’ competition, Mission Viejo’s Lindsey Hartman won the 100 freestyle in 53.31. Mission Viejo was fourth with 228 points.