Irvine’s Girls Gear Up For Relays

The girls’ swim season will get into full swing this week with the CIF Relays at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Irvine, naturally, is expected to win its sixth-consecutive title and could possibly sweep the seven relay events, but swimmers from No. 2 Newport Harbor, No. 3 San Clemente and No. 4 Foothill will make for some great races.

“Everyone knows the real race this season is always going to be for second place,” Newport Harbor Coach Ken LaMont said. “I don’t know if Irvine will sweep all the relays though. San Clemente is pretty tough and we have a shot in the 400 freestyle relay.”

Carly Geehr and Nicole Mackey are expected to lead Newport Harbor’s 400 freestyle team, but the Sailors might be without Hayley Peirsol, who just returned from the U.S. Nationals and said she might take some time off to get back into school. Mackey, who also competed at the Nationals, is expected to swim. The Sailors have the third-best time (3 minutes 42.60 seconds) in the county this season.

Irvine swimmers have the county’s fastest times in the 200 medley relay (1:50.55) and the 400 freestyle relay (3:35.79).

Foothill’s 200 freestyle relay team set a meet record (1:39.56) at the Foothill Swim Games last weekend. Ashley Henson, Gabbie Domanic, Jillian Kraus and Kaitlyn Card broke by .14 seconds the mark set by San Clemente in 1999. It is the county’s fastest time this season. Canyon is second at 1:40.61.

The preliminaries begin today at 3 p.m. and continue on Thursday. The finals are 7 p.m. Saturday.

MISSING IN ACTION

Despite missing four of its top swimmers at the Foothill Swim Games last weekend, the third-ranked Fountain Valley boys’ team managed a third-place finish, with only six swimmers in the finals.

The Barons were missing their top two breaststrokers, Danny Asahi and Nick Kim, who were away on school assignments, and their strongest backstroker, Andrew Richardson, and one of their top butterfliers, Colter Kennedy, were on a trip to San Francisco with the school’s choir.

Fountain Valley scored 121.4 points and finished behind top-ranked Irvine (280 points) and No. 5 Capistrano Valley (134).

Senior Brandon Dotts swam a personal best in the 200 individual medley in 1:57.64. He finished second, just getting out-touched by Irvine’s Phillip Kim (1:57.36). Dotts also swam a personal best in the 100 backstroke, finishing fifth in 54.60.

Kevin McCoy took third in the 50 freestyle (22.82) and fifth in the 100 freestyle (49.88), while Thomas Erwin was fifth in the 100 butterfly (56.77).

The Barons swim at Los Alamitos at 3 today.

MISSION VIEJO GAMES

Irvine will compete for the first time in the Mission Viejo Invitational on April 14.

The meet, which began 20 years ago, has always been on the same day as the Foothill Swim Games, an event Irvine always attends. This year, Foothill moved its event to an earlier date.

With the Nationals over and everyone back in their local pools, the Mission Viejo Invitational should be the meet of the season.

U.S. NATIONALS ROUNDUP

Newport Harbor’s Ryan Lean (Irvine Novaquatics) was named co-rookie of the U.S Nationals, along with David Plummer of the Oklahoma Aquatics Alliance.

El Toro’s Katlin Sandeno (Nellie Gail Gators), who made the World Championship and World University Games rosters in four events, won the Kiphuth Award for high points with 74. Sandeno qualified for the World Championship teams in the 400- and 800-meter freestyles, the 200-meter butterfly and the 400-meter individual medley.

Also qualifying for the World Championships were Newport Harbor’s Aaron Peirsol (Novaquatics) in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke and University’s Jessica Hayes (Novaquatics) in the 200-meter backstroke.

Staff writer Erik Hamilton contributed to this report.

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SWIMMING TOP 10

Orange County Coaches’ Poll

GIRLS

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Pos. School League 1. Irvine (1) Sea View 2. Newport Harbor (2) Sea View 3. San Clemente (3) South Coast 4. Santa Margarita (4) Serra 5. Foothill (5) Century 6. Laguna Hills (6) Sea View 7. Canyon (8) Century 8. Capistrano Valley (7) South Coast 9. Esperanza (9) Sunset 10. Corona del Mar (10) Pacific Coast

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BOYS

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Pos. School League 1. Irvine (1) Sea View 2. Santa Margarita (2) Serra 3. Fountain Valley (3) Sunset 4. Edison (4) Sunset 5. Capistrano Valley (5) South Coast 6. Villa Park (6) Century 7. Newport Harbor (7) Sea View 8. Mission Viejo (8) South Coast 9. Dana Hills (9) South Coast 10. Canyon (10) Century

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Last week’s rankings in parentheses