Nitros get best of Tornadoes twice

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — With the Pacific League prelims and finals on deck, the Glendale High and Hoover swimming teams had something to settle during their final dual meet of the season — neighborhood supremacy.

It proved to be a one-sided affair for Glendale in both portions of the meet Wednesday afternoon at Hoover.

Glendale’s girls’ team swept all 11 events to post a 111-38 victory and the boys’ squad captured 10 races to earn a 114-45 win.

Glendale second-year Coach Forest Holbrook said it was important for both Glendale teams to work on improving their marks.

“You always are trying to peak toward the end of the season,” Holbrook said. “You want to have good results going into prelims and finals because it’s a super-competitive league.

“Hopefully, their times will continue to drop.”

In the girls’ competition, Glendale (1-5 overall and in league) turned to Maddie Corpuz, who won two individual races and helped win a pair of relays in turning aside Hoover (0-6 overall and in league).

Corpuz captured the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes 39.63 seconds and then won the 100 backstroke (1:10.41). She opened the meet by teaming with Melissa Gonzalez, Biyouregh Boghozian and Jacqueline Jones to win the 200 medley relay (2:11.06). Corpuz finished the meet by working with Gonzalez, Jones and Alique Berberian to take the 400 freestyle relay (4:33.94).

Corpuz said she had no trouble gearing up for the Tornadoes.

“I’m happy with the way everything went for the team and I,” Corpuz said. “It’s the last dual meet, so you want to bring it all.

“We came in here pretty confident. We wanted to get the ball rolling early and we were able to carry it all the way through.”

The Nitros received two first-place finishes from Jones in the 50 freestyle (22.84 seconds) and the 100 freestyle (1:05.97). Also picking up first-place finishes for Glendale were Sara Kamiya in the 200 freestyle (2:30.72), Gonzalez in the 100 butterfly (1:12.01), Berberian in the 500 freestyle (7:00.44) and Boghozian in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.51).

Boghozian grouped with Kamiya, Claudia Somma and Venus Payandeh to capture the 200 freestyle relay (2:07.56).

In the boys’ competition, Glendale (1-5) got two first-place individual performances from Mickey Mowry and Trevor Fritz. Mowry won the 100 butterfly (51.90) and the 100 backstroke (56.62). Fritz finished first in the 200 individual medley (2:24.72) and the 100 freestyle (55.96). Also taking first for the Nitros were Cole Veloz in the 200 freestyle (2:04.75), Manuk Hakobyan in the 50 freestyle (34.06) and Emmanuel Manukyan in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.38).

The Nitros won all three relays, beginning with Mowry, Manukyan, Martin Narinyan and Hakobyan taking the 200 medley (1:53.16). In the 200 freestyle relay, David Papazian, Mehr Boghozian, Andrew Driffill and Paul Kan combined to win in 1:54.19. Bijan Rezvani, Fritz, Hakobyan and Veloz worked together to take the 400 freestyle relay (3:49.34).

“The boys’ team is really starting to come along,” Holbrook said. “I think we benefitted in the relays and we got more good performances from Mickey, who you can count on.”

Jason Barbar won the lone event for Hoover (0-6 overall and in league). Barbar clocked 5:22 to take the 500 freestyle.

Hoover assistant Coach Gamar Mirzakhanian said the Tornadoes are gaining experience.

“I definitely feel like we were there physically, but we just needed to make some small tweaks to help us get more points,” said Mirzakhanian, who coached in place of Ara Oganesyan, who was missing for unspecified reasons. “Glendale has a larger team and that helps them get a lot of first-, second- and third-place finishes.

“With Jason, he’s really been something else for us. He’s putting in the workouts every day and he did a great job winning the 500.”

The league prelims will be held Tuesday and the final will take place May 5 at Burbank High.