Record-Setting Day Is Sandeno’s Show
El Toro’s Kaitlin Sandeno smashed two meet records previously held by Orange County Olympians on Saturday in the Foothill Swim Games.
Just back from the U.S. spring nationals in Federal Way, Wash., the Charger junior erased Janet Evans’ 12-year-old meet record in the 500-yard freestyle by finishing in 4 minutes 43 seconds, one second better than the former Olympian’s time and 24 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer.
In Thursday’s preliminaries, Sandeno broke Amanda Beard’s meet record in the 100 butterfly; she bettered her own mark on Saturday, covering the distance in 54.84.
Aaron Piersol shared swimmer-of-the-meet honors with Sandeno. The Newport Harbor sophomore won the 200 individual medley (1:53.71) and the 100 butterfly (50.97) and anchored the winning 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams.
Canyon’s Erin Volcan set a meet record in the 100 backstroke (56.71) and finished the 200 freestyle in 1:50.60, less than a second off the meet record. Gonny Shimura of Irvine was the only other two-event winner, winning the boys’ 100 free (47.67) and 100 back (51.72).
Both Irvine squads finished first in the team standings. The Vaquero girls had 207 points, followed by Santa Margarita (204) and Newport Harbor (174). The Irvine boys finished with 293, ahead of Newport Harbor (205) and Santa Margarita (165).
Sandeno, whose older sister competed against Evans in high school, swam the 500 in Thursday’s prelims in 4:53.59, well off the record time of 4:44.73. She sprinted to the lead in Saturday’s race and was soon swimming alone against the clock. She covered the final 25 meters in 28 seconds and was still pushing hard at the end.
“I had a time in my head and I knew could do it,” Sandeno said. “I was really tired in those last 10 meters, but that’s the time you have to dig deep.”
Piersol caught the competition in the final 25 meters in both relay races. He had a 21.2 split in the final leg of 200 medley as Newport Harbor won in 1:29.14, with Irvine second at 1:29.17. His 47.09 split in the 400 freestyle helped the Sailors finish in 3:16.21, ahead of Santa Margarita’s 3:16.38.
“When you’re in a tight race like that, you know exactly where the other guy is the whole way,” Piersol said.
Newport Harbor’s Carly Geehr won the 100 breaststroke (1:05.53) and teammate Nicole Mackey won the 200 individual medley (2:03.61). Irvine’s Stephanie Hsiao won the 100 freestyle (52.13) and Santa Margarita freshman Erika Figge won the 50 freestyle (24.58).
Edmund Herlihy of Santa Margarita won the 500 freestyle (4:42.01) and teammate Jonathan Russell won the 200 freestyle (1:45.79). El Toro’s Dan Puchalski won the 100 breaststroke (1:00.13) and Peter Belden of Newport Harbor won the 50 freestyle (22.50).