Irvine Gets National Record, Fifth Straight Title

One national record, a state record and nine Southern Section records were broken by female swimmers Friday at the Southern Section Division I swimming finals at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Irvine opened the meet spectacularly, breaking the national high school record in the 200-yard medley relay. Diana MacManus, Sarah Hamilton, Flora Kong and Courtney Cashion finished in 1 minute 44.80 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 1:45.18 set by Phoenix (Ariz.) Shadow Mountain in 1996.

Irvine Coach Scott Hinman knew his team had a shot at the record after MacManus led off with a 25.57 split in the backstroke, and he shouted encouragement to Cashion while she waited on the starting block before her anchor freestyle leg.

“Go for it, Courtney,” he yelled from across the pool. “You’re close, you’re close.”

Cashion, a freshman, swam her leg in 23.29. Kong swam the butterfly leg in 25.53. However, Hinman said Hamilton’s 30.53 breaststroke leg was the key. It was only her second time swimming under 31 seconds this season.

“I knew I could go a 30, because I did it in the prelims,” Hamilton said. “I felt really good coming in, I just got my driver’s license this morning and everything is great.”

It was one of three records set by the Vaqueros, who won their fifth consecutive team title with 294 points.

MacManus, a freshman, set a Division I record in the 100 backstroke, winning in 54.69 to break the mark of 55.26 set by Nicole Beck of Ventura Buena in 1995. Cashion, Miho Umezawa, Kong and Stephanie Hsiao broke the 400 freestyle relay record with a time of 3:28.14. The previous mark (3:28.46) was set by San Clemente in 1999.

San Clemente’s Kristen Caverly just missed two national records but set Division I records in the 200 individual medley (1:58.86) and the 100 breaststroke (1:01.67). She won her fourth consecutive individual medley title by beating Olympic bronze medalist Kaitlin Sandeno, who was second in 2:00:19. Caverly missed the national record by .02 seconds. She was happiest, however, with her 100 breaststroke time that topped her former training partner Amanda Beard’s record of 1:01.79, set in 1996. She credited second-place finisher Erin Sieper of Esperanza for her strong finish.

“On the final turn I said, ‘Oh my God, she’s right there,’ ” Caverly said. “She really pushed me.”

Sieper finished in 1:01.89.

Caverly also anchored San Clemente’s 200 freestyle relay team, which won in a division-record 1:36.71. Ventura Buena set the previous record of 1:36.94 in 1995.

Caverly’s teammate Sarah Jones broke the 50 freestyle record in 23.04, topping the mark of 23.07 set by Whittier Christian’s Jenna Johnson in 1984. San Clemente finished second in the meet with 178 points.

El Toro’s Sandeno also set two records. She set a state record in the 100 butterfly in 53.62, besting Johnson’s time of 53.95. In the 500 freestyle she broke the division record of 4:40.64, set by Mission Viejo’s Kim Brown in 1985. Sandeno finished in 4:39.64.

In the boys’ competition, Irvine became only the second team to win back-to-back titles, accumulating 279 points. Santa Margarita was second with 213 and Newport Harbor third with 195.

Gonny Shimura won the only individual title for the Vaqueros, the 100 butterfly in 50.34. Their only other title was in the 200 freestyle relay (1:37.76).

The most impressive performance came from Dana Hills’ Scott Baer, who won the 50 freestyle from Lane 8. Baer, who had to survive a swim-off in the preliminaries to make the finals, won in 21.26.

Olympic silver medalist Aaron Peirsol of Newport Harbor won the 100 backstroke (48.12) and the 200 freestyle (1:38.62), as well as anchoring the winning 200 freestyle (1:26.09) and 400 freestyle (3:09.97) relays.

In the Division III preliminaries:

Cavic in four finals--Tustin’s Michael Cavic qualified for the finals in his four events, posting the fastest time in the 100 backstroke (53.35), finishing second in the 100 butterfly (51.38) and led off two of Tustin’s qualifying relays.

In the 200 freestyle relay, Cavic, Carl Kasalek, Josh Yocam and Anthony Spezza recorded the fastest qualifying time, 1:29.19. The same four qualified sixth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:21.75).

Spezza also advanced in the 200 freestyle in 1:47.05.

Nelson Suarez of Ocean View advanced in the 200 individual medley (1:57.65) and 100 backstroke (54.79).