Irvine Has No Trouble Defending Title

The Irvine girls defended their title at the CIF Swimming Relays at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach Saturday night.

Irvine won five of seven relays for its fourth consecutive title and finished with 254 points. Esperanza was second (172) and Mission Viejo tied Santa Margarita for third at 160.

Irvine was the top seed in four events.

“A coach told me that he and some other coaches had figured out that we would have to be disqualified in three relays to lose,” said Irvine Coach Scott Hinman. “He then said the coaches were concerned about Shirley Whitted, my assistant; that they didn’t want her to get hurt when they threw us in the pool after we won.”

Laguna Hills Coach Susan Lord was without four of her top swimmers who were at Spring Nationals in New York. But even if they were competing Saturday, she said it would still have been a night of chasing Irvine.

“It’s pretty much a battle for second. I’d be happy just to finish in the top five,” said Lord, whose team finished fifth.

The Vaqueros were also without three of their top swimmers, Amanda Beard, Morgan Hoestery and Erin Zehntner, who were also competing in New York.

Irvine’s first victory came in the 400 individual medley relay as Krista Little, Romina Mosquera, Lindsay Stevens and Danielle Taylor won in 4 minutes 8.52 seconds.

Taylor, a freshman, anchored the relay with a 59.41 split.

“This is my last CIF relay,” said Heidi Kraus, a senior whose relay teammates Nicole Huszcz, Kristina Peterson, Mosquera, Ashley Gore and Stephanie Hsiao, won the 300 freestyle relay in 2:32.83. “This is the most exciting event in all of high school swimming. It brings us all together to have fun and swim. I wanted to finish all four years with a victory.”

Irvine’s next victory came in the 200 butterfly relay. Little, Stevens, Erin Lezak and Kraus won in 1:50.65.

Irvine finished the evening with a record in the 400 freestyle relay. Kraus, Mosquera, Taylor and Hsiao turned in a time of 3:34.13, which broke the meet record of 3:34.68 set by Los Alamitos in 1990.

Irvine’s other victory came in the 200 medley relay. Gore (backstroke), Emi Umezawa (breaststroke), Little (butterfly) and Hsiao (freestyle) won in 1:52.48.

Esperanza won the 200 breaststroke relay. Freshman Erin Sieper was particularly impressive, turning in a 29.84 anchor-leg split. Santa Margarita won the 200 backstroke. Dominque Rash, Clare Peyrebrune, Michele Gonzalez and Shannon Packard were on that relay.