No Pushing at Front of the Line for Boylan

Considering she had just won the Southern Section Division II girls’ 200-yard freestyle with ease, Heather Boylan wore a surprisingly perturbed look as she climbed out of the pool.

The Saugus High sophomore wasn’t challenged as she won the event in 1 minute 54.13 seconds Saturday night at the section championships at Belmont Plaza.

But that was part of the problem. Boylan’s time was one-tenth of a second slower than her preliminary time.

“There was nobody around to push me,” Boylan said. “I had no idea how I was doing.”

Boylan had reason to smile later as she cruised to victory in the 100 backstroke. She cut her time to 58.73, chopping more than a half-second from her preliminary time in winning the event for the second consecutive year.

Boylan wasn’t the only one overcoming adversity.

Hart was coming off a second-place finish last year but didn’t figure to contend this year after losing key swimmers from that team.

Still, Hart finished a heartening fifth with 120 points behind champion Laguna Hills (196.5)

The Indians got off to a good start, with Becky Skyler, Monica Oleksyn, Lauren Prelle and Danielle Odiorne winning the 200 medley relay in 1:53.36.

Skyler’s pursuit of an individual title again ended in failure. After placing second in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly last year, she settled for third in the 200 individual medley.

In the 100 butterfly, Skyler finished barely one-half second behind first-place Anna Armstrong of Sunny Hills but placed fifth.

“She was still feeling the 200 IM a little bit when she was doing the butterfly,” Hart Coach Steve Neale said. “I thought I saw her coming on in the end.”

Oleksyn had better luck in her specialty, the 100 breaststroke. After setting a division record as a freshman in 1994, Oleksyn lost the race, and her record, last year.

But she rebounded, timing 1:06.99, to defeat Carla Rodriguez of Laguna Hills by nearly a minute. Her time was more than a second slower than the division record she hoped to reclaim.

In the boys’ races, Joel Everman of Notre Dame had third-place finishes in the 200 (1:42.08) and 500 freestyles (4:34.55).

Freshman Kenneth Carpenter of Crescenta Valley placed third in the 100 butterfly (51.85) and Steve Kim of Crescenta Valley was fourth in the 100 breaststroke (58.54) and sixth in the 50 freestyle (21.70).

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Jennifer Abbey was swimming for a different school in the Division III finals at Belmont Plaza, but the results were pretty much the same Saturday for the La Canada junior.

Abbey, who helped lead Flintridge Sacred Heart to the Division III girls’ title last year, transferred to La Canada at the beginning of the school year.

She placed second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 500 freestyle, leading the Spartans to a fifth-place finish.

“It’s a little disappointing not to win an event but it’s been a fun year,” Abbey said.

The Harvard-Westlake 200 freestyle relay team of Kristin Olson, Ashley Kim, Emily Dashiell and Janea Jackson broke the Division III record by one-tenth of a second, finishing in 1:41.61.

The Wolverines hold five of 12 Division III girls’ records.

“This one is the most special,” Coach Darlene Bible said.

“It’s great for our senior class to go out like this.”

The Wolverines were in competition for the team title until the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Harvard-Westlake placed third in both the event and the final team standings, 16 points behind champion Jurupa Valley.