La Tourette Begins Ascent to Top

At the end of a long day that finished a long season, Chad La Tourette could finally stop, stand back, and survey his work.

“I gave it what I had tonight,” he said. “I’m satisfied with my progress, and everything that I’ve accomplished.”

He should be.

The Mission Viejo junior made short work of the competition in the longest race in high school swimming, winning the 500-yard freestyle in 4 minutes 25.06 seconds at the inaugural Southern Section Masters meet Tuesday night to complete a successful season in which he vaulted into the highest reaches of U.S. distance swimming.

“I’m rising up and up right now,” La Tourette said. “It’d be great to make the U.S. Olympic team, and it’s definitely more in my sights now.”

La Tourette, 17, was seeded first in the 500 freestyle going into Tuesday’s morning preliminaries at Belmont Plaza after he had clocked 4:23.68 -- the fastest time by a high school boy in the nation this year -- in the Southern Section Division I championships on Friday. He outpaced second-place finisher Aaron Casey of Irvine (4:27.47) by nearly four seconds. He also qualified for Masters competition as the sixth-seeded swimmer in the 200 freestyle (1:42.12).

La Tourette showed early that he would be on top of his game this year.

A member of the U.S. junior national team, he won two individual gold medals at the 2006 U.S. Victorian Championships in Melbourne, Australia, in January. He also won the 800-meter freestyle in 8:11.41, the fourth-fastest time by a U.S. team member of any age this year. He also had the fifth-best time of the year in winning the 1,500 with a time of 15.36.19 at the same meet.

“That was a great experience,” he said. “I just love getting up and competing. Practices can be demoralizing, but I live for the competition, and being able to get that win.”

In the California-Nevada sectionals in March, La Tourette posted a career-best 9:02.18 in the 1,000-yard freestyle to surpass the 2003 meet record of 9:07.53 set by Larsen Jensen, a 2003 Mission Viejo graduate and USC junior who has become the top distance freestyler in the country.

“I think I’ve always been a hard worker,” La Tourette said. “But as the training goes up, the hard work pays off even more.”