El Toro’s Sandeno Makes Big Waves at Foothill Games

As well as El Toro’s Kaitlin Sandeno swam Saturday, it probably didn’t matter who else was in the pool at the Foothill Swim Games.

Sandeno was named the girls’ swimmer of the meet, winning the 500-yard freestyle and shattering the meet record in the 200 individual medley.

The record Sandeno broke by more than two seconds was set last year by Marina’s Jamie Cail, who had broken the previous record held by Janet Evans. Cail, a senior, sat out Saturday’s meet to concentrate on training with her club team, the Mission Viejo Nadadores, Marina Coach Matt Mauser said.

Sandeno said it would have been nice to race Cail, but her main focus was go after the record.

“Having her next to me would have pushed me and it probably would have been a good race,” Sandeno said before winning in 2 minutes 2.62 seconds. “But I really want this record [in the 200 IM] and it’ll be me against the clock.”

Sandeno swam with equal tenacity in the 500 freestyle, easily winning in 4:50.86, nine seconds faster than second-place finisher Erin Zehtner of Irvine, who won the 200 freestyle earlier in 1:53.0.

Sandeno, a sophomore, has been coming on strong in the last year and was named female swimmer of the meet at Spring Nationals in New York last month.

Amanda Beard, the former Olympian and Irvine senior, won the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.22 and the 100 butterfly in 56.23, breaking the record of 57.09 she set on Thursday during preliminaries. Teammate Stephanie Hsiao won the 100 freestyle (53.75).

San Clemente’s Ari Gardner, Sarah Jones, Kristen Caverly and Stephanie Chambers made it clear that they will be the relay team to beat at Southern Section finals, sweeping all three relays. In the 200 freestyle relay, San Clemente won in 1:39.70, smashing the meet record of 1:39.96 set by Irvine last year. Jones also won the 50 freestyle in 24.29.

Aaron Peirsol of Newport Harbor became the first freshman boy to be named the swimmer of the meet. Peirsol, who is world ranked in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, set a record in the 100 back of 50.76, a second faster than Philippe Demers’ 1997 record.

Beard was named swimmer of the meet as a freshman in 1996.

Peirsol also won the 100 butterfly, finishing in 51.46 after a Friday preliminary time of 54.09. Ryan Lean, another Newport Harbor freshman, won the 500 freestyle in 4:44.41.

The Irvine boys’ and girls’ teams defended their titles, the boys winning by 150 points and the girls by 186.