Sunny Hills Keeps Perfect Record Intact

The Sunny Hills girls’ swim team continued its unbeaten season Friday with a 92-78 nonleague victory over Villa Park.

The 10th-ranked Lancers (8-0), who moved into the county rankings two weeks ago for the first time since the mid-1980s, fell behind after losing the first two events, then won eight of the final nine at Villa Park High.

Although it wasn’t a league meet, the victory was important for Sunny Hills, a Division II team that is trying to gain respect among the county’s elite.

“[Villa Park] is a Division I team, so this is a big win for us,” Lancer Coach Craig Schwartz said.

Freshman Jessica Witt won two events and keyed two relay victories for the Lancers, but wasn’t overly impressed with her effort.

“I didn’t do very good,” Witt said. “I can do better.”

Witt started the Lancers’ roll, winning the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes 11.35 seconds, her best time this season. She followed that with a victory in the 500 freestyle, where she double-lapped the field on her way to a time of 5:06.22, just a tick under her season best, 5:06.06. Her time would have placed her second in the varsity boys’ race, which Villa Park’s Mark Liao won in 5:01.48.

The Lancers took an eight-point lead after the 200 freestyle relay. Michelle Christy led off and gave her team a body-length lead. Carissa Abe extended the lead, but the Spartans closed the gap after the third leg. Then Witt, who had just finished the 500 freestyle, took over and anchored the team to victory in 1:44.48, less than a second ahead of Villa Park (1:45.39).

Abe and Christy then finished one-two in the 100 backstroke, and the Lancers won the 400 freestyle relay (3:50.81) to put the meet away.

On the boys’ side, the Lancers were without their best swimmer, Eric Hansen, and were unable to keep up with the sixth-ranked Spartans, who won, 117-53. Jared Jones, Josh Kashuk and Liao each won two events for Villa Park (8-3).

In nonleague boys’ swimming:

Canyon 117, Buena Park 48--Chris Meyer won the 200 individual medley (2:07) and 500 freestyle (4:45.6) and swam on two winning relays for Canyon (9-1).

In the Foothill softball tournament:

Los Alamitos 1, Aliso Niguel 0 (8 innings)--Mackenzie DeLeon was three for four and doubled home Natalie Mickelson in the top of the eighth for Los Alamitos (7-11) in pool play.

In Century League boys’ volleyball:

Canyon 3, El Modena 1--Martin Poms had 15 kills to help Canyon to a 15-8, 15-8, 8-15, 15-5 victory. Jordan Bekier had 41 assists for Canyon (10-2, 5-1). Kyle Christiansen had 18 kills for El Modena (7-5, 2-4).

In the Garden Grove League:

Garden Grove 3, Los Amigos 0--Robert Rubalcaba had 15 kills for Garden Grove (12-1, 8-1), which won, 15-2, 15-12, 15-2. Richard Dinh had nine kills for Los Amigos (3-10, 0-8).

La Quinta 3, Santiago 2--Joe Rogers had 13 kills and Ken Do had 25 assists as visiting La Quinta, trailing, 12-9, in the fifth game, rallied for a 15-7, 10-15, 15-11, 9-15, 18-16 victory.

Hieu Pham had 16 kills for Santiago (6-9, 2-7).

The Aztecs are 4-11, 3-6.