Irvine Leaves the Field in Its Wake

The Irvine girls’ swim team came within 1.36 seconds of a clean sweep Saturday night at the Southern Section Relays at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

The Vaqueros won six of seven races, breaking four meet records and four school records on their way to their sixth consecutive title.

Irvine came up short only in the 200-yard butterfly, which was won by San Clemente in 1:47.89. Irvine finished second in 1:49.24.

“I knew we were capable of this,” Irvine Coach Scott Hinman said. “After what we swam in the preliminaries, I knew we were going to break some records. These girls always come to swim at this meet. They love it.”

The Vaqueros finished with 274 points, just six shy of a perfect 280.

San Clemente was a distant second with 194 points and Foothill was third with 144.

Hinman knew going into the 200 butterfly that San Clemente had a good shot of winning. The Tritons posted the fastest time in the preliminaries by almost two seconds, and had nearly the same outcome in the final. Sarah Jones, Heather O’Neill, Kristen Caverly and Stephanie Chambers won, one second off the meet record set by Mission Viejo in 1983.

“I’m stoked,” San Clemente Coach John Bandaruk said. “San Clemente showed themselves really well out of a really strong field. This was a great meet for us.”

The rest of the night belonged to Irvine. The most dominating performance was in the 400 freestyle, which the Vaqueros won by more than 10 seconds, breaking their own meet record (3:34.13) by almost three seconds. Their time of 3:31.46 is the county’s fastest this year by more than four seconds. Courtney Cashion and Stephanie Hsiao each swam legs of 51.50, tops in the county.

In the 200 medley, the Vaqueros broke Capistrano Valley’s 18-year-old meet record by more than a second, also setting a school record. Diana MacManus, Sarah Hamilton, Flora Kong and Cashion won in 1:47.31. Capistrano Valley swam 1:48.47 in 1983.

Mission Viejo’s meet record in the 300 freestyle fell, as the Vaqueros won in 2:29.99, setting another school record. San Clemente, which finished second in 2:30.49, also topped the Diablos’ 1989 mark of 2:31.86.

The Vaqueros’ final meet record and school record came in the 200 backstroke, ending Capistrano Valley’s eight-year reign. MacManus, Lisa Sciarani, Tanya Nielsen and Ashley Gore just beat the record (1:49.32), winning in 1:49.28.

Despite all the record-breaking performances, Hinman was most impressed by his team’s time in the first race of the night, the 400 individual medley. The Vaqueros dropped more than seven seconds off their season best, as Hsiao, Sciarani, Hamilton and MacManus won in 4:00.94, just missing the meet record of 4:00.16.