Costa Mesa boys’ swim team repeats as CIF champion
The Costa Mesa High boys’ swim team made history last year, winning the first CIF Southern Section title in program history.
After moving up from Division 3 to Division 2, a repeat championship didn’t seem to be in the cards. The Mustangs just wanted to be in the conversation.
They were much more than that on Friday at Mt. San Antonio College.
The mighty Mustangs shined, coming up with big swims to earn the Division 2 boys’ swimming championship.
With 180 points, they easily out-distanced second-place Chino Hills Ayala (132), and third-place Rowland (129).
“We talked about it, but you know, you’re not expecting it,” Costa Mesa coach Keith Ryan said, adding that he spent about 30 hours over the last two weeks trying to formulate a strategy. “It’s a testament to the synergy. It’s a true team. We have water polo people, seasonal high school swimmers, club swimmers. A lot of them swim at [Costa Mesa Aquatics Club]. I think that’s a big part of it, because we see a lot of these kids daily. I think it helps, really, with the buy in.”
One such club swimmer, sophomore Avrum Xagorarakis, flashed his talents again on the big stage. He touched first in the 200-yard freestyle in a school-record 1 minute, 40.26 seconds. He was also seventh in the 100 butterfly, in 50.15, which had senior teammate Kaua Mota place fourth in 49.83.
Mota was also second in the breaststroke, in 56.56. The Mustangs then ended the meet with another school record. Though they were out-touched by Oxford, Mustang swimmers Luke De La Jara, Xagorarakis, Diego Lamboglia and Mota put an exclamation point on their victory by placing second in 3:09.88.
“It feels amazing winning [CIF] twice,” said De La Jara, a junior water polo player who finished sixth in the 100 free and 12th in the 200 free. “Last year, as much as the whole team contributed, I felt like it was kind of Avrum and Kaua helping us win it. This year, it was way more of a team win.
“I felt that everyone performed super-well in both prelims and finals. We had pretty much a flawless race in both prelims and finals. Everyone contributed.”
Orange Coast League champion Costa Mesa also took second in the 200 medley relay, with Xagorarakis, Mota, AJ Pang and Wes Brazda touching in 1:36.21.
Lucas Trask, a senior water polo player who swam on the 200 free relay, said going back-to-back was a surreal experience.
“It really feels like we’re creating a legacy that people are going to remember for years,” Trask said. “People are going to look back in 20 years and be like, whoa, this is crazy. These guys really did this.”
Ryan said water polo players deserved much of the credit for the win, also thanking polo coaches Cody and Dustin Serrano for “melding these guys into people that will entertain swimming.”
“It wasn’t just our two fast guys; Luke really stepped up,” Ryan said. “Water polo players are a different athlete to a club swimmer, and I think that’s super-integral to what’s happening. They make everyone relaxed. They have a different energy. They’re not focused on their time, or what if I mess up my dive, what if my turn’s bad? They make mistakes just like everyone, but I think they deserve a lot of the credit for helping the energy of the team.”
The Edison and Marina girls also competed at the Division 2 finals. Edison junior Gaby Kelly had the best individual finish, placing 11th in the girls’ 200 individual medley, while Marina junior Jadyn Chaffins was 13th in the 50 free.
CIF Division 3 swim finals
Costa Mesa’s impressive swims did not stop with the boys.
The Mustangs girls finished a strong third place in the Division 3 finals held earlier Friday at Mt. San Antonio College.
“I think it was good,” Costa Mesa freshman Melanie Pang said. “Some people got nervous in the finals, so we didn’t do as well as we thought, but we still did good as a team.”
Sage Hill was the other local school with a top 10 finish, as the Lightning girls placed seventh.
Costa Mesa had an individual champion in Pang, who touched first in the girls’ 100 breaststroke in 1:07.19. The Mustangs also started the meet strong, as freshman Chloe Hills, Pang, freshman Karolina Sangasy and senior Addie Juelfs touched third in the 200 medley relay in 1:55.79.
Sangasy finished seventh in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free for the young Mustangs. The 200 free relay team of Sangasy, Pang, freshman Chloe Wool-Smith placed fifth.
Sage Hill sophomores Vivi Ta and Annika Shah, as well as juniors Grace Yan and Madeline Stagg, touched fifth in the 400 free relay.
Ta was sixth in the butterfly, and Stagg placed ninth in the 100 freestyle and was the consolation champion in the backstroke.
“My 100 free was not necessarily what I hoped, but it was a good motivation for the backstroke, to come back and drop some time,” Stagg said. “It’s so fun to do good at a big end-of-season meet like this.”
The Lightning girls have no graduating seniors in swimming, though senior Ennika Carlson won the girls’ Division 3 diving championship this season.
Ocean View junior Morgan Carles, meanwhile, placed fifth in the backstroke and fourth in the 100 freestyle at Division 3 finals. The times weren’t the best for the Golden West League champion, but she couldn’t complain.
“I’ve been on a plateau for a while, but I feel like CIF, it’s been a time for me to accept it,” Carles said. “Right now I feel like I’m still content with everything and happy with how my races did … I think it’s really hard for swimmers to get through mental blocks, and I’ve had one for a while. This meet, I’m finally OK with everything. It’s like a breath of fresh air.”
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