Santa Margarita’s Uxa Takes It Easy

Santa Margarita’s Frank Uxa isn’t a bit bothered about competing in the Southern Section swim championships this week in Long Beach. In fact, the 6-foot-4, 180-pound senior says he’s remarkably calm.

“I learned a lot from teammate Philippe Demers last year,” Uxa said. “He showed me that your senior year should be fun. He taught me how to stay relaxed and not let the pressure get to you.”

Demers, who swims for USC, dominated the section Division I finals in 1997 and was named Times Orange County swimmer of the year.

“My first three years at Santa Margarita I swam for my school,” Uxa said. “But this year, it’s for me. I mean, I still want to do my best for my school, but since this is my last year, I want to have fun and have a good [section] meet.”

Swimmers are limited to two individual events and two relays at the section finals, which begin Thursday with preliminaries. Uxa has qualifying times in most of the eight individual events, but has chosen to swim the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard backstroke.

Why didn’t he choose the 50- or 100-yard freestyles? His times are among the county’s best in both events.

“The 200 IM is really my best event [he has the county’s best time of 1 minute 54.26 seconds], so that decision was a given,” Uxa said. “But the 50 was a tossup. I really wanted to swim the 50 free, but Alan Ong [of Mission Viejo] is just too fast, and too many things can happen in a 50.

“It was all my own decision. And when I made it, it really came down to the two strokes I felt most comfortable with.”

Irvine’s Daniel Kim, who is also expected to compete in the 200 IM, is a second and a half behind Uxa’s top time. In the 100 backstroke, Toyokazu Tsujino of El Modena has the county’s best time (51.75) while Uxa is third at 52.51.

“I’ve swam against these guys plenty of times in my club and high school career,” Uxa said. “Believe me, I know how tough they can be. But I think I have a chance. And you have to believe in yourself.”

Santa Margarita Coach Rick Rowland said the decision was left entirely up to Uxa.

“He knows better than me what he thinks he has the best chance in,” Rowland said. “Right now, he thinks he can do better for himself and the team in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke.”

Uxa hopes Santa Margarita can finish at least second at the section finals, which is where they finished last year behind Mission Viejo.

“It’s pretty much going to be Mission Viejo winning this thing, but we could take second,” he said. “I know Irvine will be tough, but things could happen.”

Uxa has been swimming since he was 7, when his family moved to California from Illinois. He began with Swim America, a program sponsored by the Mission Viejo Nadadores. After a year, Uxa became a member of the Nadadores swim club, where he still swims.

Rowland has been his coach since his freshman year.

“You’ve got to remember, that Frank is a young senior [he doesn’t turn 18 until November]. He should be a junior,” Rowland said. “But in the last three years, he’s come along so well.

“In his freshman year, he didn’t make the finals at Southern Section, but he made finals in his sophomore and junior years. And this year, well, I really believe Frank has a good shot of winning both of his events.”

Uxa will swim for California next fall. “I was also thinking about Purdue, but I like the Cal campus and their swim program,” he said.

Uxa also plays a little water polo. He didn’t start the sport until his freshman year, but was a starter for the Santa Margarita varsity last season.

“I played my freshman and sophomore year, but I skipped my junior year,” he said. “All my friends played polo, and I wanted to play my last year with them. We had a really good team and we had great time.”

But for Uxa, water polo was merely a hobby.

“I know it’s usually the opposite with polo players. They only swim because of polo. But it’s always been swimming with me,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to do at Cal, and nothing else.”