Lovdokken Making a Splash by Himself

To use swimming parlance, Antony Lovdokken is competing unattached.

Lovdokken, a senior at Village Christian, is his school’s only competitive swimmer, participating on a free-lance basis in Southern Section meets for the second consecutive season.

“It’s all by myself,” Lovdokken said. “I tell all my friends, ‘Come with me, I need three other people for a relay.’ I have plenty of friends, but none of them want to swim. But you get used to it.”

Lovdokken, 17, first sought to swim for his school as a junior. But Village Christian has no swim team, swim coach or pool.

Rather than transfer to a school with a swimming program, Lovdokken and his mother, Yumiko, asked Village Christian officials to explore how Antony could compete on a free-lance basis.

“All my friends were here, and I didn’t think it was worth it [to transfer] just for swimming,” said Lovdokken, who has attended the Sun Valley private school since fourth grade. “I’d have had to start all over.”

So, Lovdokken goes it alone, swimming the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events accompanied by his mother, who serves as Village Christian’s official “coach” and supervisor. He swims in Pasadena Poly home meets at Caltech and in selected invitational meets, striving to attain qualifying times for Southern Section postseason competition.

Lovdokken’s best of 23.11 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle last year missed by only one one-hundredths of a second from reaching the section standard.

His best this season is 23.15 and the qualifying standard has been lowered to 23.0.

Because he does not represent Pasadena Poly or the visiting school, Lovdokken usually is relegated to an outside lane, considered the slowest.

“It’s a little weird sometimes,” he said. “Everyone else has a Pasadena Poly cap on, and I don’t have one.

“They just give me the lane so I can get my times. But it didn’t matter to me--just as long as I got to swim.”

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Two of the best boys’ swim teams in the region will square off at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, when Crescenta Valley hosts Hart in a nonleague meet.

Crescenta Valley beat second-place Hart for the Southern Section Division II championship last year, and many of the schools’ top swimmers returned this season. They include seniors Kenny Carpenter and James Jenkins of Crescenta Valley and Anthony Ervin and Ryan Parmenter of Hart.

Carpenter won the Division II title last season in the 200-yard freestyle, ahead of third-place Parmenter. Carpenter also set a Division II record in the 100 butterfly. Ervin is the defending Division II champion in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Parmenter was 100 freestyle runner-up and Jenkins finished third in the 50.

The girls’ competition will feature younger swimmers. Hart, which has won 16 consecutive Foothill League championships, boasts sophomore Christine Castellano, who has qualified for postseason competition in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley.

Crescenta Valley counters with sophomores Tawne Fishback and Alexis Sheridan. Sheridan has qualified for postseason competition in the 200 and 500 freestyle. Behind Fishback, Sheridan and senior Shelley Stiles, who has a postseason qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke, the Falcons won their first Pacific League title last season.

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Improving Simi Valley will face traditional powers Hart and Westlake in a nonleague golf match Monday at 1:30 p.m. at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.

Simi Valley (10-0) defeated Agoura by 33 strokes last Monday and Royal by 32 on Tuesday, but Coach Ty McDermott knows the Pioneers’ match against Hart (20-1-1) and Westlake (9-4) will be a better barometer of their talent.

“We’re hoping to give them a good run,” McDermott said. “We’re hoping to give them something to think about.”

Simi Valley has placed a distant second to Westlake in Marmonte League play the last two years, but McDermott thinks the Pioneers can give the Warriors and Hart a competitive match on Monday.

McDermott’s optimism stems from the performances of seniors Jeff Honaker and Tim Pridipun and sophomore Mark Modglin.

Honaker shot a two-over-par 73 Tuesday at Simi Hills Golf Course.

Simi Valley was scheduled to golf against only Westlake on Monday, but Hart was added after its March 15 match against Westlake was rained out.

Hart and Westlake traditionally face each other twice each season in nonleague play, but Coach Dennis Ford of Hart said the first match is usually not indicative of each team’s strength.

“Usually, both sides choke themselves out in the first match,” Ford said. “They relax and play much better in the second match.”

Ford is hesitant to compare Hart with his previous teams even though the Indians shot a school-record one-under-par 304 at Vista Valencia Golf Course in a Foothill League match on March 23.

“No other [Hart] team has ever done that,” Ford said. “So that’s saying something.”

Staff writers John Ortega and Lauren Peterson contributed to this story.