Top Athletes Featured in Major Meets

Many of the top high school swimmers from Orange County will be competing today in two major swim meets.

Former Olympian Amanda Beard will be featured in the 27th annual Foothill Swim Games at Foothill High.

Beard, an Irvine senior, set the meet record in the 100-yard butterfly Thursday, finishing in 57.01 seconds during the preliminaries. It’s a school record and the fastest time in the county this year. She surpassed Marina’s Kyoko Yokouchi’s time of 57.35, set at last year’s meet.

Beard also holds the Foothill Swim Games’ record in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.38), set her freshman year.

El Toro sophomore Kaitlin Sandeno, the female swimmer of the meet last month at Spring Nationals and a member of the U.S. Pan American team, will compete.

In the boys’ events, Irvine, ranked second in the county, will be defending its meet title against No. 4 Capistrano Valley, No. 5 El Toro, No. 6 Fountain Valley, No. 8 Marina and No. 9 Newport Harbor.

Newport Harbor freshman Aaron Peirsol , world ranked in the 200-meter backstroke, will be after former Santa Margarita standout Philippe Demers’ 100-yard backstroke meet record of 51.10. Peirsol has the best time in the county this season (52.22).

Swimming starts at 10 a.m.

Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills and University as well as schools from Northern California and San Diego will be competing in the Mission Viejo Invitational at Marguerite Aquatic Center in Mission Viejo.

Miramonte, Moraga Campolindo, Concord Del La Salle, Concord Carondelet and San Jose Christian are the featured schools from Northern California. Mount Carmel and Poway are the San Diego-area schools.

Jie Hyun Lee of Mission Viejo, Jessica Hayes of University and Shauna Barnard and Lindsay Buck of Laguna Hills will be the top county girls competing. Alan Ong, the county’s top sprint freestyler, will leading the No. 1 Mission Viejo boys’ team.

Diving preliminaries start at 9 a.m. with finals scheduled 1 1/2 hours after the prelims are completed.