This Yugo Has a Higher Gear

Tustin senior Michael Cavic plans to take the Southern Section boys’ swimming finals a lot more seriously this year. That’s scary, considering he won three section titles last spring and broke a 10-year-old Division III record in the process.

But that was the unshaven, unrested Cavic, who used the postseason as preparation to swim for Yugoslavia at the World Championships two months later in Japan. He holds dual citizenship in the United States and Yugoslavia.

With no major international meets on his schedule this summer, nothing stands in the way of an all-out performance at the finals in May at Long Beach Belmont Plaza.

Cavic said he wants to join Anthony Robinson as the only high school swimmers to break 20 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. Robinson went 19.91 for Houston Memorial High in 1997.

Cavic also hopes to be the first swimmer to break 47 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly in a high school event.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said.

But those numbers are within reach for Cavic, who is 6 feet 5.

He won the 50 freestyle at the section finals last spring in a personal-best time of 20.21, missing the state high school record by .04 seconds.

He has already matched the national high school record of 47.10 in the 100 butterfly, but didn’t get his name in the record book because the time was not produced at a high school meet.

Because the 50 freestyle immediately follows the 100 butterfly at the section finals, Cavic will look to break 20 seconds on the lead leg of the 200 freestyle relay, which is scheduled about 20 minutes after the 100 butterfly.

For that to happen, Cavic will need help from his relay teammates to advance the Tillers through the Golden West League finals and section preliminaries.

“If we qualify,” Cavic said, “it would be the greatest gift they could give me.”

After high school, Cavic hopes to stay competitive at least through 2004. He competed for Yugoslavia at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and hopes to do the same in 2004 at Athens.

Cavic said he would like to swim for the United States in 2008, but would need to be released from the Yugoslavian team at least two years before the Olympics. Depending on his success at the 2004 Games, permission could be difficult to obtain.

“Yugoslavia doesn’t have many Olympic swimmers,” Cavic said. “If I have success, I would be a hero to the country.”

In the meantime, Cavic will compete collegiately for California and continue working on a stroke that he hopes will help him be the best.

“I want people to see me in a race and say, ‘OK, who is going to win silver?’”

Diving into it: Laguna Hills senior Michael Hilde is the favorite to repeat as Division I diving champion. As a sophomore at Anaheim Servite, Hilde set a Division II record that was broken last season by Irvine University senior Louie Gagnet.

Hilde transferred to Laguna Hills last year and beat Mission Viejo’s Dae Don Cho by 13.15 points to win Division I.