Breakers boys make history

LAGUNA BEACH — For the Laguna Beach High girls’ swim team, winning the Orange Coast League is old hat.

For the boys, it’s an experience that won’t soon be forgotten.

Laguna Beach swept the girls’ and boys’ league finals Thursday at its home pool. It’s the second straight Orange Coast League title for the girls, but it’s the first time the boys’ swim team has ever won a league title.

The program dates back to 1961, but this is the first crown for Laguna boys’ swimming.

The result seemed to be up in the air after the Breakers and Costa Mesa boys tied a dual meet last week. At league finals, though, it was Laguna Beach manning up for a 340-266 point victory.

The girls easily bested the second-place Mustangs, 445-216.

Coach Kari Johnson said her team was probably deeper, but that does nothing to discount the time the Breakers put in.

“I really think our guys were fired up for this,” she said. “They worked hard. After the dual meet, they knew it was in our reach.”

Senior Preston Head had a couple invigorating swims, against Calvary Chapel’s Josh Roe. Head out-touched Roe in the 50-yard freestyle to win in 21.88 seconds, also setting a school record.

In the 100 free, Roe out-touched Head, winning by the razor-thin margin of 47.61 seconds to 47.63.

“It was a great race,” said Head, adding that it was a great day for the Laguna Beach boys as well. “Last year, [Costa Mesa] beat us here at home and they celebrated for like 30 minutes on our pool deck. All of us, we really wanted to beat them this year. That was our goal from the beginning of the season, to beat them.”

Freshman Billy Wild won the 100 fly in 55.88 seconds, finishing a close second to Costa Mesa’s Cody Serrano in the 200 IM (2:05.30).

David Brunner won the 100 back in 1:01.96, and Tommy Renner won the 100 breast in 1:10.57.

Johnson also pointed toward times like the 58.67, a CIF Division II consideration time, that Robert Chew swam in the 100 fly.

“On Tuesday at prelims he broke a minute, then today he went 58,” she said. “They all dropped time.”

The Breakers girls won every event. Annika Dries took the 200 free (1:57.85) and 100 free (55.03), and fellow senior Chelsea Wild won the 100 fly (58.32) and also the 500 free (5:01.81).

Andrea Reigel took the 200 IM in 2:08.87, as well as the 100 breast in 1:09.08.

Taylor Dodson won the 50 free in 25.96 and said she also had fun rooting on the boys to victory.

“They’ve always been really close but always fallen to Costa Mesa,” she said. “It was really good for us to cheer them on and watch them win. It was just really fun.”

Taylor Capobianco won the 100 back in 1:05.40, and Laguna also easily swept the three relays. That’s a performance the Breakers will also try to emulate at CIF, which has preliminaries Thursday and finals May 16.

“A lot more people got consideration times and automatic times for CIF,” Dodson said. “We’re looking to go pretty strong. For our relays, especially, we want to go and get top three if not win.”