Corona del Mar Girls Win Title

Corona del Mar, Irvine Northwood and Irvine University were in a league of their own at the Southern Section Division II swimming championships Saturday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

It’s the Pacific Coast League.

Corona del Mar’s girls’ team, ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, won its first title with 238 points. Northwood (192) placed second and University (185.5) finished fourth behind defending-champion Upland (189). In the boys’ meet, Northwood (202) won its first title and University (179) was the runner-up.

“I think it gives our league a real pat on the back,” said Corona del Mar Coach Doug Volding.

Freshman Stephanie Gabert set a meet record by more than half a second in winning the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute 3.36 seconds and sophomore Lexie Shue set personal bests when she won the 500 freestyle (4:51.23) and placed second in the 200 individual medley (2:06.45) for the Sea Kings.

Senior Adam Rollins won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:41.91 and placed second in the 100 freestyle (46.35) to lead Northwood, a 5-year-old school.

Palm Springs senior Matthew Sullivan was the lone double winner, taking the 50 freestyle in 20.86 seconds and the 100 free in 46.09.

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Junior Sean Doyle won the 100 and 200 freestyles to lead the Murrieta Valley boys’ team to its third consecutive Division III championship.

Murrieta Valley became the sixth school to win boys’ and girls’ titles in the same season when the Nighthawk girls won their first title despite not winning a single event.

The Nighthawk boys, who won all three relays, had 14 swimmers advance out of preliminaries. The girls’ team had eight finalists and junior Kelly Cooper won the one-meter diving competition for 20 points toward the victory.

Sophomore Courtney Kilkuts of Corona Santiago had the most impressive times of the day. She won the 200 individual medley with a meet-record time of 2:02.06 and won the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.57.

Lauren Peterson

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Badminton

Brendan Taft and Eva Lee of Villa Park made it a clean sweep in the Southern Section individual badminton championships, winning the boys’ and girls’ singles titles at the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange after the two won the mixed doubles title on Thursday.

Top-seeded Taft jumped out to a quick lead against second-seeded Richard Vi of Long Beach with a 15-8 victory in Game 1.

Vi battled back in the second game and took an 11-7 lead before Taft ran off eight unanswered points to win.

Top-seeded Lee, the No. 3-ranked player in the United States in women’s singles, had little trouble in the tournament.

Lee gave up a total of 10 points in four matches, eight of those coming in the title match where she defeated Westminster La Quinta’s Jamie Subandhi, 11-2, 11-6.

Melanie Neff

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Track and Field

Senior Whitney Johnson of Mission Viejo was the top qualifier in the girls’ pole vault at the Southern Section Division I preliminaries Saturday at Trabuco Hills, clearing 12 feet 10 inches to break the divisional record of 12-3 set by Cara Walker of Marina in 2003. Johnson’s mark is the fourth-best in the nation this year.

Long Beach Wilson suffered another blow to its section title hopes when the Bruin 400-meter relay team, which had the second fastest time in the nation, dropped the baton and failed to qualify for the finals Saturday at Cerritos College.

-- Mike Kennedy