Cashion Leads Irvine Girls to Swim Title

Courtney Cashion, who began the season a month late because of academic ineligibility, put to rest any doubts that she had returned to top form as she set meet records in both sprints and led Irvine to its eighth consecutive Division I girls’ swimming championship Friday night at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Danny Beal defended Division I titles he won last season in the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly to lead the Dos Pueblos to its first team title.

Dos Pueblos finished with 222 points. Defending champion Mission Viejo, aided by 40 points from three divers, finished second with 195.5 points. La Verne Damien finished third with 156 points.

The Irvine girls clinched victory with 203.5 points after winning the 400 free relay over second-place Glendora in the final event of the night.

Cashion, the two-time defending champion in the 50 freestyle, timed 22.75 seconds to win that event again and clocked 49.26 in the 100 free to complete a four-year sweep in that race.

“I just wanted to finish strong,” said the Arizona-bound Cashion. “This is a nice ending.”

Jessica Hardy, a junior at Long Beach Wilson, had a strong finish to a stellar season in winning the 100 breaststroke in a national-record time of 1:00.41 to beat the previous standard of 1:00.74. She also won the 200 individual medley in 2:01.98.

Santa Barbara senior Tyler Wilson and Glendora senior Courtney Eads were double winners. Wilson defended the title he won last year in the 100 free by clocking 45.18, and he went 20.54, just off the meet record of 20.27, in the 50 free. Eads timed 1:47.55 in the 200 free and 4:49.21 in the 500 free.

Lauren Peterson

*

Softball

Everything went Saugus’ way in the second half of the Foothill League season. The Centurions went undefeated in five games, culminated by a 1-0 victory over Valencia Thursday to forge a three-way tie for first place, and then Saugus won a coin flip Friday that will give it the top position for seeding purposes.

Though tied with Valencia and Newhall Hart with 8-2 league records, Saugus (19-5) will be considered the first-place team, Valencia (22-7) the second-place team, and Hart (15-11-1) the third-place team when the Division I playoff pairings are determined. Pairings will be released Monday.

Martin Henderson

*

Baseball

With no at-large berths available for the upper divisions of the Southern Section playoffs, some quality teams won’t be included in postseason plans when the pairings are announced Monday.

Anaheim Servite, ranked No. 18 in the Southland by The Times, saw its playoff hopes eliminated Wednesday, when La Puente Bishop Amat defeated Santa Margarita, 8-4, to finish third in the Serra League. The Friars (17-8, 6-6) needed Santa Margarita to sweep Bishop Amat in two games this week after they lost their league finale, 4-2, to the Lancers last Saturday.

Santa Ana Mater Dei, ranked 13th, finished tied for the league title with No. 9 Santa Margarita, both at 8-4. However, the Monarchs will be the league’s No. 2 entry into the playoffs because they lost two of three to Santa Margarita. Bishop Amat, which lost two of three to Servite, finished third at 7-5.

“It was tough sitting around the last week,” Servite Coach Todd Cook said. “If we had taken care of business Saturday, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

Dan Arritt

*

Boys’ Tennis

Diamond Bar’s Chris Chien, the two-time Sierra League most valuable player, will not participate in the upcoming Southern Section individual tournament, adding another prominent name to the growing list of players who will be absent.

Chien (39-4) didn’t lose a league match this season. He participates in the school’s International Baccalaureate Program, which held mandatory exams on the same afternoon as league singles semifinals and finals.

Corona del Mar’s Carsten Ball and Thousand Oaks’ Sam Querrey already have pulled out of the section’s singles tournament, which begins May 22.

Elia Powers

*

Track and Field

Lauren Reid’s left hamstring is not expected to be completely healed when the Oxnard Rio Mesa sophomore competes in the girls’ long jump today in the Southern Section Division II preliminaries at Ontario Colony, but Spartan Coach Brian FitzGerald figures she’ll be able to garner one of the nine qualifying spots for the divisional finals at Cerritos College on May 22.

Reid leaped a career-best of 19 feet 4 inches, third-best in the state this spring, earlier this season. But she finished third at 16-5 1/4 in the Pacific View League finals last Friday after she strained her left hamstring while running the second leg of the 400-meter relay in the Ventura County championships the previous week.

“She may be at 90% by the end of the week and then maybe 100% by the divisional finals,” FitzGerald said.

-- John Ortega