Breakers sweep OCL swim finals

LAGUNA BEACH — After a deep playoff run for the Laguna Beach boys’ water polo team in the fall and a CIF championship for the girls’ polo squad in the winter, spring turned out to be no slouch for Breakers aquatics either.

Laguna Beach swept the girls’ and boys’ league finals May 7 at its home pool. It’s the second straight Orange Coast League title for the girls, but its the first time the Breakers boys’ swim team has ever won a league title.

The Breakers are at the CIF Southern Section Division III finals Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College, and the Masters Meet is scheduled for Tuesday.

The league finals result seemed to be up in the air after the Breakers and Costa Mesa boys tied their final league dual meet. But the Breakers pulled away at league finals, 340-266.

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

Coach Kari Johnson said her boys’ 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 Division III 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 began Thursday and has finals at 10 a.m. Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

The venue was changed from the traditional location of Belmont Plaza, due to a faulty pool pump.

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