Newport Harbor girls’ swim team captures Surf League title
The Newport Harbor High girls’ swim team won the Wave League title last year, then got promoted to the upper division of the Sunset Conference, the Surf League.
The Sailors went just 1-2 in their three league dual meets. But coach Kevin Potter still saw the potential heading into league finals.
“We had the depth with our second, third and fourth swimmers,” he said. “I knew we had a really good chance.”
Newport Harbor delivered on Friday at Golden West College, winning the league finals meet to edge out the league title. Los Alamitos, Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach followed in the team standings.
Los Alamitos repeated as league champion on the boys’ side, followed by Huntington Beach, Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar.
The Sailors girls won no individual events and none of the three relays, either. Their depth still proved to be a difference maker as they won their fifth league title in program history.
They had six combined points between the league finals and dual meets, edging out Los Alamitos with five, Potter said.
“[Water polo coaches] Christina [O’Beck] and Ross [Sinclair] did such a good job with those girls, training them, getting them ready for this meet,” Potter said. “The water polo players and the swimmers, we all came together and got it done. That’s what a team is, all coming together. … The girls stepped up and brought it.”
Junior Ariana Amoroso placed second in the 50-yard freestyle (23.92 seconds) and 100 backstroke (56.65). A pair of junior water polo players also earned a pair of top-three finishes.
Harper Price finished second in the 100 free and third in the 200 free. Caitlin Stayt was third in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke.
They had a pair of water polo Futures matches on Saturday, but the Surf League finals provided them a chance to shine with their strokes instead of their shots.
Price was followed by water polo teammates Madison Mack and Sofia Del Villar in the 100 freestyle, as the Sailors took the second through fourth positions behind event champion Nikki Lahey of CdM.
“We’re all water polo players,” Stayt said. “It’s good in a way, because it’s light-hearted. I mean, we’re still really competitive, but we sort of just come here with nothing to lose being water polo players. It feeds into our competitive spirit. We play as a team for Harbor in water polo season, so that team chemistry just feeds into our swim season as well.”
Lahey edged out Amoroso to win the 50 free (23.62), in addition to her 100 free victory in 52.28 seconds.
CdM junior Alex Milisavljevic and freshman Sofia Szymanowski were also double-event winners and contributed to the Sea Kings’ winning 200 medley and 200 free relays, along with Lahey and senior Taylor Park.
Milisavljevic won the 200 free (1:53.19) and 500 free (5:00.59). Szymanowski won the 200 IM (2:04.47) and also the 100 breast in 1:02.67, less than half a second off the school record.
“I feel like I did really well, because I’m not tapered,” the freshman phenom said. “I feel like I’m going to do better at CIF, but I’m overall really happy with how I did this week.”
On the boys’ side, Huntington Beach senior Jun Caruso stood out. He won the 200 IM in a personal-best time of 1:53.85 and was also third in the breaststroke, in a school record time of 56.92.
Newport Harbor junior Aidan Arie finally got his long-awaited 500 freestyle school record, touching first in 4:29.00. The previous record, a 4:29.2 from Todd Lincoln in 1980, was the oldest record on the Sailors’ books. Arie also won the 200 free in a personal-best 1:39.40.
“This is where I got my first [Junior Nationals] cut,” Arie said of competing at Golden West College. “This pool, for me, is my bread and butter with the bulkhead setup. I love this pool.”
Sailors sophomore Connor Ohl won the 50 free (20.75) and 100 free (45.35). After setting the school record in each event during Wednesday’s preliminaries, he lowered that record in the 100 free on Friday.
“I really attacked the walls in my turns a lot better than [Wednesday],” Ohl said. “I was keeping my head down, just trying to power through. At the end of the day, I’m already first, I just want to see how hard I can push myself to get lower. It was great dropping time in that, because it just makes the record even [harder] for other people to get.”
The CIF Southern Section Division 1 swimming preliminaries will be Thursday morning at Mt. San Antonio College, with the finals on Saturday afternoon. Local swimmers are ready to try to cut even more time.
“I heard it’s a really fast pool,” Lahey said. “Our whole team is pretty excited about that.”
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