Cail Has No Trouble Winning Showdown

Jamie Cail might be the new kid on the block, but she seemed right at home at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza Pool Friday night as the Marina junior won two events at the Division I Southern Section finals.

Cail’s first victory came in the 200-yard individual medley. Swimming against Olympic medal winner Amanda Beard, the race looked like it might be close as both were a few tenths apart following Thursday’s preliminary swims.

But while many focused on the race between Beard and Cail, it was Shannon Cullen of Redlands who actually put up the challenge. With three strong strokes to help her take the lead, it looked as though Cullen might play the spoiler. But Cail, a master at the middle distance freestyle events, came back with a strong freestyle leg to take the lead at the last turn and win the race in 2 minutes 01.59 seconds.

Cullen finished at 2:02.63. Beard’s time was 2:03.51 for third.

“I’m not shocked anymore when she swims,” said Marina Coach Dave Carlson. “She was really focused on the race. And whether she was worried about swimming against Beard. It didn’t seem to matter.”

Cail moved to California from Florida last Fall to train with Bud McAllister who also trained Janet Evans.

Cail was equally impressive in the 500 freestyle. Although Cail was well off Evans’ 1988 national high school record of 4:37.30, she still won in 4:44.69. That time was the fastest recorded so far in the nation this year.

In team competition, the Irvine girls easily defended their title with 360 points. Marina was second (189) and Redlands was third (176).

Mission Viejo collected its 20th section title with a score of 333.5 in the boys’ competition. Irvine was second (227.5) and Santa Margarita was third (171).

With so much depth, Irvine overwhelmed the competition to win its third section title.

Though Beard had a disappointing finish in the 200 IM, the Olympian came back to win the 100 breaststroke in a county best time of 1:02.80.

Irvine won all three relays, and its 200 freestyle relay team of Leslie Christiansen, Morgan Hoesterey, Stephanie Hsiao and Erin Zehnter just missed a section record with a time of 1:37.47.

Irvine’s Hsiao also won the 100 freestyle (51.38).

Cail’s teammate, Kyoko Yokouchi, won the 100 backstroke in an All-American time standard of 56.96. Sarah Jones of San Clemente clocked the county’s first 23-plus time, winning the 50 free (23.98).

The Mission Viejo victory gave Coach Mike Pelton his 20th section title in boys’ swimming, which ties the record for a coach in any sport. Bakersfield Coach Dwight Griffin won 20 section titles in football between 1914-1945.

Alan Ong, who was named the male swimmer of the meet, was the primary sparkplug for the Diablos. The Malaysian foreign exchange student won both of his individual events. In the 50 freestyle, he held off Klyle Baumgarner of Villa Park to win in 21.29. Baumgarner, who will be playing water polo next fall at UCLA, took an early lead, but Ong’s turn was the difference.

In the 100 freestyle, Ong had little difficulty, winning in 46.31, which is the fastest time in the county this season.

Ong’s presence also made the difference in the 200 freestyle relay. With Irvine a body-length ahead at the start of the anchor leg, Ong turned in a blistering 21.0 split to catch Irvine’s Drew Tabbert and give the Diablos the win in 1:36.46.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of these guys,” Pelton said. “This certainly isn’t the strongest team I’ve ever had, but they knew they couldn’t make any mistakes and they swam well.”

Besides Ong, Santa Margarita’s Frank Uxa was the only double winner from the county. Uxa won the 200 IM (1:51.58) and the 100 back (51.85). Daniel Kim of Irvine turned in the county’s fastest time in the 100 breaststroke to win the event in 57.03. Toyokazu Tsujino of El Modena took the 100 butterfly (51.56).