Glendale bests rival Hoover

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE — Forest Holbrook, coach the Glendale High boys’ and girls’ swimming teams, always tells his swimmers that setting personal best times — not wins and losses — is the most important thing.

The Nitros philosophy still yielded a heap of wins when Pacific League and cross-town rival Hoover High traveled to Glendale Wednesday.

“This is always a very exciting meet for our swimmers and it’s a nice one to finish off with before we go into league prelims,” Holbrook said. “We got a lot of [personal records] for our kids so we’re very happy.”

Glendale’s girls won all 10 races for a 107-35 victory and the boys picked up a 103-55 win over Hoover, despite the Tornadoes nabbing five top finishes.

“It’s great because they compete against their friends, but at the same time it’s kind of hard to manage everybody because they’re competing against their friends,” Hoover Coach Kevin Witt said of the rivalry meet. “We had people miss some events and some were a little distracted, but it happens.”

Jacqueline Jones, Melissa Gonzalez, Maddie Corpuz and Byourgh Boghozian each had big days for the Nitros girls (1-5 in league). The quartet won both the 400-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relays before each took home at least one individual victory.

Corpuz won the 200 individual medley in 2 minutes 38.16 seconds and 100 back in 1:14.86, Gonzalez claimed the 200 free (2:31.97) and 100 butterfly (1:15.16), Jones won the 50 free (28.11) and Boghozian was first in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.24).

“It was a hope [that we’d win convincingly], but we never want to expect we’re going to kill anybody,” Corpuz said. “It was a pleasant surprise [to win every race].”

The Nitros’ remaining wins came in the 200 freestyle relay from Vahik Golabi, Venus Payendeh, Mariquita Engelman and Rabbi Ko and Golabi also won the 100 free in 1:11.88.

It was Mickey Mowry and Trevor Fritz who delivered multiple victories for Glendale (1-6) on the boys side.

The pair teamed up with Bijan Rezvani for wins in the 200 medley, along with David Papazian, and 400 freestyle relays, which included Kurt Johnson.

Mowry went on to win the 200 free in 1:46.92 and 100 butterfly in 51.70, while Fritz took the 100 free in 54.8.

“It feels good to win, but it’s not all about winning, it’s about times,” Mowry said. “I just want to be my best.”

Papazian, Mehr Boghozian, Artak Arzumyan and Armen Karapetyan delivered Glendale’s final victory in the 200 free.

Hoover also got big days from Hakop Kaplanyan and Jason Barbar, who both won two races. Kaplanyan won the 50 free and 100 breaststroke in 23.1 and 1:07.8, respectively. Barbar took first in the 200 individual medley (2:10.9) and 500 free (5:17.8).

“Hakop is just a natural athlete so whenever he gets in the water it’s going to look a lot easier than his training may dictate,” said Witt, who saw both squads fall to 0-6 in league. “Barbar is a year-round swimmer — he loves the feel of the water — so he is going to do well no matter what.”

andrew.shortall@latimes.com