Laguna Hills Sends Coach Out in Style

It was Susan Lord’s last meet as the head coach of Laguna Hills. So, the Southern Section Division II girls’ swim finals Saturday were not only nerve-racking for Lord but sad as well.

Lord said all year that her team’s objective was to win a third consecutive title before she retires. Laguna Hills will move to the Sea View League and become a Division I school next fall.

Lord, who has coached the Hawks for eight years, wants to devote more time to her family.

“We want to go out with a bang,” Lord said, as swimmers and parents dropped off farewell flowers to the coach before the meet at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Lord not only got her wish for another division crown but, the team also set a Division II record.

Laguna Hills finished with 280.5 points. University was second (165) and Palos Verdes Peninsula was third (155.50).

In the 200 medley relay, Laguna Hills’ Shauna Barnard, Katina Economides, Lindsey Buck and Morgan Class raced to a 1:49.58 finish to break Hacienda Heights Wilson’s 19-year-old record of 1:50.04.

Barnard, who won the 200 individual medley (2:06.87) and the 100 backstroke (56.21), led off the relay with the backstroke.

“We’re swimming with a ton of emotion,” Barnard said in reference to Lord.

Barnard, who was named the female swimmer of the meet for the second consecutive year, was also the anchor for the Hawks’ winning 400 freestyle relay (3:33.08).

Buck was Laguna Hills’ other top performer as the sophomore held off freshman Jeri Moss of Riverside Poly to win the 100 butterfly in 56.35.

“Sometimes I ask myself how I ever got here, coaching this team,” Lord said before her victory plunge with her team. “It’s been a lot of fun. A lot of great kids.”

While Barnard was named the top female of the meet, it was Jessica Hayes of University who stood out in the girls’ individual events. The sophomore won the 200 and 100 freestyles. Hayes finished the 200 free in 1:48.26, just missing Stacy Shupe’s (North Hollywood Harvard Westlake) 1982 record by two-tenths of a second.

Hayes left no doubt she is the fastest 100-yard freestyler in the Southern Section as she won in 50.63, almost a second faster than the best times in Division I and III.

For Hayes, Saturday’s victories gave her four Division II individual titles. She won the 50 and 100 freestyles last year.

After coming back from a seventh-place prelim swim to take fourth in the 50 freestyle (21.32), Mike Cavic of Tustin got a brief rest and got up to swim his second race, the 100 butterfly.

Cavic, a freshman, took off the block with a perfect start and clocked a 49.61 to win the event. Cavic’s time was off the boys’ Division II title by .19 seconds. His time in the butterfly was the fastest in the Southern Section this year.

Jarrod Cruzat of Servite just missed breaking University’s Goh Phuangthong’s 1996 record in the backstroke as he won the event in 50.95.

In the boys’ team scores, Crescenta Valley won its second section title with 272.50. Newhall Hart was second (223) and Arcadia third (169). Laguna Hills had the best finish for an Orange County team with 95 points for seventh place. University was ninth.