Lightning host pool party

It’s been nearly seven years now since Taras Polakoff watched the “backstroke king,” Aaron Peirsol, compete at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center.

That ended up being the last big meet of Peirsol’s career, but the experience stuck with Polakoff. He gained an affinity for the backstroke as well as he rose through the ranks of club swimming.

Fast forward to Tuesday, and Polakoff was celebrating his 18^th birthday. He did it swimming the backstroke in Sage Hill’s brand new aquatics complex, with Peirsol racing him one lane over.

How cool is that?

“It’s pretty surreal,” Polakoff said. “It’s insane. Getting to race against him, it’s a dream come true.”

Peirsol’s alma mater, Newport Harbor, played against Sage Hill’s baseball team a stone’s throw away. But Peirsol was on Sage’s campus because he was one of several aquatics Olympians who were special guests as the Lightning officially opened the Sage Hill Aquatics Complex (SHAC) on Tuesday.

Olympic water polo players like CdM alumnus John Mann and initial Sage Hill water polo coach Genai Kerr also showed up, as did Omar Amr, Jeff Powers, Brad Schumacher and former Olympic swimming star Kaitlin Sandeno Hogan. They raced against Sage swimmers to open the pool, before playing a scrimmage water polo game against Lightning players.

Longtime Sage Hill swimming and water polo coach Tom Norton cut the ribbon to officially open the facility, which features a pool that’s 33 meters by 25 yards. A couple of hours later, Norton stayed at the pool to coach, as the Lightning hosted their first on-campus meet in school history against Oxford Academy.

The Sage boys, led by Polakoff and sophomore Jason Schreiber, improved to 4-0 in the Academy League with a 106-61 victory. The Sage girls, led by freshman Nicole Harvey, lost by a score of 98-56 to fall to 1-3 in league.

But the numbers didn’t seem to matter too much on this day, not with everyone having fun as a DJ spun music on the pool deck and people enjoyed food trucks outside. No longer will Sage Hill aquatics teams have to travel off campus for meets at University High in Irvine, and practices at community pools.

The campus was bustling with athletic events, with the baseball game, as well as the Sage boys’ tennis team facing rival St. Margaret’s and the girls’ lacrosse team facing Irvine. The boys’ tennis complex, which features six courts, opened in March of 2016.

“It all lined up so perfectly,” Sage Hill Athletic Director Megan Cid told the crowd at the ribbon cutting ceremony of having four on-campus games Tuesday. “This is what we envisioned. What you’re going to experience today is what we envisioned for our community, and I want to thank you for allowing this long-awaited dream to become a reality. Most importantly today, we’re bringing our water polo and swim teams home.”

As for the Sage Hill swim team, Polakoff hoped to break the school record in the 100-yard butterfly in Tuesday’s meet. He swam a 54.48 to win the race, but not better Andrew Dorne’s 2010 mark of 53.87.

“I’m angry,” said Polakoff, who also won the 100 back in 55.38 and owns three individual school records. “I’ll set [the butterfly record] at league [finals] … I was at Coachella this weekend. I was kind of tired after that, probably. The pool’s nice, though.”

Polakoff also was one of three Lightning swimmers honored on Senior Day. The others were Justin Sung and Paige Solaas. Solaas has also played on the boys’ water polo team for four years, since Sage doesn’t have a girls’ water polo team. But she believes that could change with a pool on campus.

“I think we’ve been waiting for that moment for four years, to jump into our own pool,” Solaas said. “They spent a long time mapping it out. They wanted to make sure they got it just right, and I think we can all say that they did. It’s pretty incredible. It’s exciting for all the people coming in. Water polo and swimming hasn’t been a huge sport at this school, but I think now it’s going to become one of the main sports here.”

Harvey is certainly an up-and-coming star for the Sage girls, having set individual records in five events – 200 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke – as a freshman. In Tuesday’s meet, Harvey won the IM in 2:17.68, and the breast in 1:10.55. She was happy with the times, as they’re her best when she hasn’t worn a technical suit.

Harvey just smiled when asked about the opening of the aquatics center.

“I don’t even feel like it’s Sage, because I’m so used to Sage not having a pool,” she said. “It’s crazy. It’s awesome.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo