Cavic Continues to Swim Through Record Barriers

Michael Cavic didn’t accomplish all that he desired Saturday at the Southern Section Division III boys’ swimming finals, but he still performed at a high level.

Cavic, a senior at Tustin High, lowered his day-old national high school record in the 50-yard freestyle and just missed national records in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.

Cavic broke his national record on the opening leg of the 200 freestyle relay, touching the wall in 19.69 seconds. Cavic was looking forward to lowering his time in the event after clocking a 19.77 split Friday at the preliminaries, breaking a five-year-old national record (19.91).

Cavic also talked of becoming the first swimmer to break 47 seconds in the 100 butterfly in a high school meet, but he finished in 47.13, missing the national record by .03.

Cavic surpassed all expectations by winning the backstroke in 47.55, just .05 off the eight-year-old national record. Cavic was equally thrilled that he swam faster in the event than Aaron Peirsol of Newport Harbor did on Friday night in the Division I finals. Peirsol is the long and short course world-record holder in the 200-meter backstroke.

“The 100 back blew me away,” Cavic said. “I only train in the backstroke about 100 yards a day. I don’t deserve to go 47.5.”

Cavic wasn’t finished. He broke his fourth division record of the day in the 100 freestyle by swimming a 44.11 opening leg on the 400 freestyle relay. With his butterfly and backstroke records still standing from when he competed in Division II as a sophomore, Cavic ended his high school career with six divisional records.

Cavic’s performances helped the Tillers finish in 10th in the team standings. Murrieta Valley won the title with 231 points, followed by San Luis Obispo (207) and Yucaipa (160).

Pasadena Mayfield won the girls’ title with 238 points, edging defending champion Whittier La Serna (226), Camarillo (212) and Yucaipa (208).

Mayfield freshman Alexandra Wiley won the 200 individual medley (2:05.87) and 100 freestyle (52.66) and teammate Joy Tanizaki, a junior, won the 100 breaststroke (1:06.69).

Morgan Hentzen won the 200 freestyle (1:51.41), the 500 freestyle (4:50.01) and anchored La Serna’s winning 200 (1:40.40) and 400 freestyle relays (3:35.96). La Serna’s victory in the 400 free relay produced the lone division record.

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Riverside Poly won the girls’ Division II title behind Jeri Moss, who broke a year-old divisional record in the 100 backstroke (55.18). Moss also anchored the 400 freestyle relay team to victory in the final event in 3:33.21, which made up a 10.5-point deficit against North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake.

Riverside Poly scored 221 points, defending champion Crescenta Valley had 201.5 and Harvard-Westlake, which didn’t qualify a 400 freestyle relay team, finished third 191.5.

Harvard-Westlake set a division record in the opening event, the 200 medley relay (1:49.51), and Glendora sophomore Courtney Eads broke a 21-year-old division record in the 100 butterfly (55.47).

Mike Linn of Newhall Hart won the 50 (20.85) and 100 freestyles (45.59) and anchored the winning 200 freestyle relay (1:27.89) to lead the Indians to the team title. Hart scored 237 points, followed by Riverside Poly (176) and Fullerton Troy (175).

Dan Arritt

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In track and field:

Southern Section Division III preliminaries--Senior Chelsea Johnson of Atascadero set a divisional record of 12 feet 8 inches in the girls’ pole vault in the meet at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.

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In badminton:

Southern Section finals--Villa Park’s Eric Go won the boys’ singles title with a 15-6, 15-1 victory over Long Beach Poly’s Nicholas Jinadasa and Keppel’s Jun Hu claimed the girls’ singles title with an 11-1, 11-0 victory over Amanda Lum of Palos Verdes Peninsula at Orange County Badminton Club in Orange.

Winning doubles titles were Villa Park’s Mike Chansawangpuvana and Brendan Taft in boys’ play and Villa Park’s Eva Lee and Connie Hwang in girls’ play.