HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING CITY SECTION FINALS : Birmingham’s Ballard Breaks Pair of Records

Despite winning the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races in record times in the City Section swimming finals Wednesday night at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Heather Ballard of Birmingham High still cannot decide whether she prefers swimming or track and field.

Ballard, a senior, won the 200 in 1 minute 53.10 seconds to break the mark of 1:53.16 set last year by Carson’s Claudine Martinez.

Two hours later, Ballard won the 500 in 4:56.46 to dip under Martinez’s time of 5:00.18 set in 1990. Her time would have been fast enough to win the boys’ race by nearly 10 seconds.

Ballard won the 100 freestyle and placed second in the 200 freestyle last season.

Ballard teamed with Andrea Medina, Heather Collier and Kristina Furdek to place fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (4:08.20).

She also combined with Medina, Charlene Albain and Lisa Fletcher to place fifth in the 200 medley relay (2:07.14).

This afternoon, Ballard will compete in the Valley Pac-8 Conference track and field championships at Birmingham in the 800 meters, high jump, shotput and 300 hurdles.

At least, she didn’t have to compete in both sports Wednesday night. It’s happened twice this year.

“I enjoy doing both,” said Ballard, who placed fifth in the shotput in last year’s City finals. “Track gets my mind off swimming and swimming gets me off of track. Eventually, I’ll have to make a choice if I want to excel but I think I’ll wait.”

The Palisades girls scored a record 342 points to win their 10th title in 11 seasons. The Palisades boys totaled 316 points to win their seventh consecutive title.

Venice (246), Granada Hills (164) and Birmingham (151) were second, third and fourth in the girls’ division. The Birmingham boys finished second with 232 and Venice was third with 155.

Kristine Quance of Granada Hills, who finished third in the 200-meter breaststroke in the U.S. Olympic trials in March, broke her City record of 1:03.39 in winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.86 and came within .03 seconds of her record in winning the 200 individual medley in 2:02.24.

Quance had taken a month off from training after the trials to recover from a bout of mononucleosis. “I wasn’t planning on coming back after a certain time,” said Quance, who also swam a leg for the Highlanders’ victorious 200 medley relay team (1:59.24). “I was just going to wait and see as soon as I felt I was over the mono. To swim as fast as I did in the shape I’m in and the workouts I’ve done is pretty good.”

The Birmingham boys’ 200 medley relay team of Steven Lemich, Seri Bryant, Eric Yoshida and Bradley McLaughlin won in 1:45.92.