Agoura Surprises the Field : Calabasas Fails in Bid to Defend Swim Title

One might assume that, since four of the five Agoura High swimmers competing in the Southern Section 2-A Division championships Saturday were sophomores or younger, the brightest eyes in the house would belong to the members of the Charger team.

After all these were the finals. All the other teams trying to get by with four underclassmen were home watching “Flipper” reruns and waiting for their body hair to grow back.

First-year Agoura Coach Mike Mulligan admittedly was as wide-eyed as anybody in the house.

“This is unbelievable,” he said as he surveyed the near-capacity crowd at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach. “Our guys are just swimming great . . . this is fantastic.”

Agoura, which finished third in the Frontier League behind Calabasas and Harvard, led in the boys’ team standings after six events and eventually finished a surprising fourth. Calabasas was second and Harvard was seventh.

Mulligan, 24, is about as wet behind the ears as the rest of his underaged overachievers, but his swimmers were successful even beyond his youthful expectations.

“I just inherited a bunch of great kids from the local club teams,” Mulligan said with a laugh. “Three freshman and one senior. I’m psyched to see them doing so well.”

Agoura freshman Tyler Cadham did so well, in fact, that he scored 35 points by himself, the second-highest individual total in boys’ competition. Cadham finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke in a school-record 59.26 seconds, swam a leg on the third-place team in the 200 medley relay (1:41.67) and took sixth in the 200 individual medley in 1:59.52.

While Agoura was near the top of the pack all day in the boys’ division, it was Calabasas that nearly pulled off its second consecutive title with a win in the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay. But then again, two other teams also could have won the title by taking the race.

Entering the event, Miraleste and Agoura were 1-2 in the standings, but neither team had an entry in the 400 freestyle relay. Calabasas and Woodbridge--tied for third with 65 points--and Brea-Olinda (62) all had a shot at the title with a win.

But the prize went to Brea-Olinda, which set a 2-A record with a time of 3:12.95. Woodbridge (3:13.10) finished second while Calabasas slipped to fifth in 3:18.77. The relay victory gave Brea-Olinda, which also won the girls’ division with 183 points, the boys’ title with 110 points. Calabasas (95) was next, followed by Woodbridge (91) and Agoura (85). Harvard was seventh with 54 points.

Calabasas Coach Dave Hershman was downcast, quite the opposite of his Frontier League counterpart Mulligan.

“Sometimes the variables really get you,” he said. “We had a kid with the chicken pox who didn’t swim like he could have, and we lose some points in another race by three-hundreths of a second.

“I had hoped we would do a little better.”

Calabasas finished second in the first boys’ event of the day, the 200 medley relay, setting the tone for the rest of the meet. After recording the fastest qualifying time Friday, Calabasas (1:40.59) was nipped at the finish by Miraleste (1:40.56). Agoura, paced by Cadham and two other freshmen, was third in a school-record 1:41.67.

“I don’t really know where Miraleste came from,” Hershman said. “I didn’t think they would be a factor.”

Individually, Agoura was as much a factor as any team. Freshman Jason Stelle finished fifth in the 200 individual medley, setting another school record at 1:59.24. Stelle, who set a school record in the 100 backstroke Friday in 53.75, was second in the final, despite paring the Charger record to 53.42. Chris Clarke of Rancho Alamitos won in 53.34, but Stelle’s time qualifies him for All-American consideration.

Calabasas freestyle swimmer Brad Shenfeld earned the hard-luck award for the day. Shenfeld, a junior, twice was paired against Woodbridge standout Chad Hundeby.

Shenfeld was sixth in the 200 at 1:46.57 and seventh in the 500 in 4:23.67. He was only an afterthought, however, as Hundeby set 2-A records of 1:38.17 in the 200 and 4:23.67 in the 500. Hundeby, a junior, broke his record by a half-second or more both times.

In the 100 butterfly, Harvard’s Mike Chang was third in 52.51, one place ahead of Calabasas’ Rich McCarty. Gahr’s Mike Reyes won easily in 50.81.

Agoura’s Jennifer Bissell, a sophomore, finished sixth in the girls’ 200 individual medley in 2:18.15 as her team finished 20th in the girls’ competition. Louisville, despite having no individual swimmers in the final of any event, finished 11th.