Boys swim: Peirsol, Lean double up for Newport

Richard Dunn

IRVINE - Three of the four Newport Harbor High swimmers in the boys

200-yard freestyle relay are playing water polo in college next fall.

The anchor, junior Aaron Peirsol, is an Olympic Games silver medalist.

Together, they kept Irvine from sweeping the relays Friday in the Sea

View League swim finals at Irvine High.

“They just go so deep,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Kreutzkamp said of

the Vaqueros, who scored another league title with 640 points, followed

by the runner-up Sailors (432), Laguna Hills (360), Aliso Niguel (316)

and Woodbridge (98).

Of the eight individual events, however, Newport Harbor captured first

place in five -- two each by Peirsol and Ryan Lean and one by Andrew Cole

(49.19 in the 100 free).

Peirsol, a backstroker at the 2000 Sydney Games, is having the time of

his life swimming different strokes in high school, capped by league

titles in the 100 butterfly (50.78) and 200 individual medley (1:54.37),

in which he destroyed the field, winning by more than seven seconds.

Further, Peirsol anchored an impressive league championship 200 free

relay, overtaking Irvine’s Tyson Beamer to put the Tars on top.

“I’m real excited about that relay (which won in 1:28.56),” Kreutzkamp

said, “because three of the four haven’t shaven yet and it was an Orange

County-best time for the year (topping Irvine’s 1:29.18). Those four guys

won CIF (Southern Section) Division I last year.”

Just for comparison, Peirsol’s 50-yard split in the relay, a blazing

20.9, was far quicker than the Sea View League championship time of 22.31

in the 50 free by Irvine’s Beamer.

Aside from Peirsol, seniors Joey Snelgrove, headed for the Naval

Academy to play water polo in the autumn, Steve Jendrusina (UC San Diego

for polo) and Peter Belden (UCLA for polo) form the Newport Harbor 200

free relay.

“Their time (Friday) was less than a half second off their best, and I

think when they’re shaved down, you’ll see a pretty good time in CIF,”

Kreutzkamp said.

Distance freestyle standout Lean finished first in the 200 free

(1:46.60) and 500 free (4:35.30), well ahead of runner-up Phillip Kim of

Irvine (4:58.62).

“We can’t touch (the Vaqueros) in depth, but we can place with them

with our top guys,” said Kreutzkamp, who was hired recently as men’s

water polo coach at Golden West College.

Newport Harbor senior Ryan Cook was ninth in the 100 free, but swam a

personal-best 50.59, a CIF-qualifying mark for the first time this

season. That was the only new CIF-qualifying time for Newport Harbor at

the league finals. Cook swam a 50.90 last year at the league finals and

didn’t make it to CIF.

“Typically, we want to have our best times next week, and starting

today our top guys will begin to taper and shave down for next Friday

(for the CIF Division I Finals at Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long

Beach).”

Cole also enjoyed a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke (53.55),

behind Irvine’s Gonny Shimura (52.08), while the Sailors’ 400 free relay

of Belden, Lean, Cole and Peirsol ended second (3:23.61) behind the

Vaqueros (3:16.67), who led from beginning to finish.

Peirsol, who said he might swim the 500 free and 100 back next year in

the league finals, will compete Wednesday in the CIF Division I

Preliminaries in the 200 free and “maybe the 100 fly.”

Peirsol was pleased with his winning 50.78 in the 100 fly, in which he

beat runner-up Shimura (52.55). “I think that’s my best time (in the fly)

-- I love the fly,” Peirsol said.

“A day like this is relaxing. It’s not like a national meet.”

Newport Harbor’s 200 medley relay of Cole, Sean Johnson, Lean and

Jendrusina placed third in 1:45.27.