Irvine Boys, Girls Win League Titles

Irvine won the Sea View League boys’ and girls’ swimming titles Friday at El Toro High.

The boys won their fourth consecutive title with 526 points. The girls finished with 661.

“I hate to say this, but I knew we would win this,” Irvine boys’ Coach Ken Dory said. “We have nine swimmers going to [Southern Section]. So our next challenge is to get ready for that.”

Although the Irvine boys didn’t dominate the winners’ circle, they scored the majority of their points on second- and third-place finishes.

Irvine winners included Ryan Harwood (200-yard freestyle, 1 minute 47.48 seconds), Eric Birkelbach (100 butterfly, 54.09), and Daniel Kim (100 breaststroke, 1:00.43).

The Irvine boys also won two relays, the 200 medley and the 400 freestyle. Its 200 medley relay team set a meet record (1:39.23 seconds), breaking Woodbridge’s 1994 mark by three hundredths of a second.

Santa Margarita’s Frank Uxa was the the only boy to win two events. The California-bound Uxa won the 200 individual medley (1:54.26) and the 100 backstroke in a meet record 52.51.

Except for three individual events, the Irvine girls won every event. Olympian Amanda Beard joined teammate Krista Little to record two meet records. Beard, who also won the 100 breaststroke (1:05.09), set a meet record in the 200 IM (2:03.56), which broke her 1996 record. Little, a freshman, set a record in the 100 fly, which she won in 59.00.

Stephanie Hsiao was Irvine’s other double winner, taking the 200 (1:54.39) and 100 (53.15) freestyles. Teammate Leslie Christiansen won the 50 free (24.41).

El Toro freshman Kaitlyn Sandeno set a meet record in the 500 freestyle (4:57.96), breaking her mark set in Wednesday’s preliminaries. Dominique Rash of Santa Margarita won the 100 backstroke (1:00.42).

Santa Margarita finished second in boys’ (414) and girls’ (405) competition. El Toro’s boys (351) and girls (350) took third.