Boys swimming: SEA KINGS TAKE PCL

Tony Altobelli

CORONA DEL MAR - Humphrey Bogart summed it up best when he said,

“This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Those sentiments could also be used for Corona del Mar High’s boys swim

team and their new home, the Pacific Coast League, taking what could be

the first of many PCL swim titles on Friday, bettering the competition by

over 140 points.

“It looks good, for the next few years anyway,” a confident Coach Jon

Moore said. “Northwood is going to put up a strong program as they

continue to grow. Overall, though, I was very pleased with how my guys

performed today.”

Shortly after these inspiring words were said, he was properly dunked in

the pool by the same well-performed guys.

With the Kentucky Derby right around the corner, it might be best to

said, the Sea Kings just had too many horses for the rest of the PCL to

deal with.

Leading the stable of champions was senior John Graass, who took home two

PCL individual titles and was named the Boys Swimmer of the Meet by the

rest of the coaches.

Graass was tops in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.61) and the 100 free

(49.56), while helping both the 200 medley relay.

“John has a very, very, very good attitude when it comes to swimming,”

Moore said. “He has the ability to stay focused, which is tough when

you’re a senior and the temptation to slack off and goof around is all

around you.”

Sherwin Kim was another busy Sea King, winning the 200 individual medley

(2:02.81) and was runner-up in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.72).

“He really shaved some time of his personal-bests today,” Moore said. “He

was definitely one of our top swimmers.”

Other CdM winners include Morgan Johnston in the 50 free (22.31), Chriss

Street in the 100 butterfly (54.69), Garrett Gentry in the 100 backstroke

(56.96) and Matthew Meyer in the 500 free (5:07.60), as well as all

three Sea King relay squads.

Other top-three marks for CdM include Meyer in the 200 free (1:52.77),

Street in the 100 back (59.80), Johnston in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.36), Gentry in the 100 free (50.21), Omar Kattan in the 200 IM

(2:07.23), David Fabian in the 100 butterfly (56.43) and Marcelo

Pentuliano in the 500 free (5:09.93).

The feel-good story of the meet might have come from the side of Costa

Mesa and the two-man crew of Alex Sarris and Mike Whittman.

Whittman, who was involved in a car accident near the beginning of the

season, showed that he has come all the way back from an assortment of

injuries, winning the 100 breaststroke with a 1:04.45, just ahead of Kim.

“I didn’t think I had a shot at winning today,” Whittman said shortly

after the race. “Near the end, I saw Sherwin out of the corner of my eye

and I told myself to just go for it. When I saw the time, I was so

surprised.”

Whittman also was second in the 200 IM (2:06.87), while Sarris came

through with two third-place marks in the 50 free (23.08) and the 100

free (personal-best 50.27).

“These guys are just great athletes,” Coach Todd Kolber said. “They were

very dedicated all year long. They didn’t care about being the only two

guys on the team. They stuck around and worked their butts off and it’s

nice to see the hard work pay off.”

For Estancia, David Collier came through with two top-eight marks in the

200 free (1:59.63) and the 500 free (5:25.40).

The CIF Southern Section will determine the qualifying mark for each

event this weekend and should be posted on the Internet by Monday at

www.cifstate.org.

The CIF preliminaries will be held on Thursday at Belmont Shores in Long

Beach, with the finals to follow on Saturday.