Girls swim: Sea Kings gear up for Friday’s finals

IRVINE - Kim McKay and Brittany Bowlus of Corona del Mar High swam

personal-best and CIF Southern Section-qualifying times in the 200-yard

freestyle Tuesday to highlight the Pacific Coast League girls swim

preliminaries at University High.

McKay qualified second in the 200 free in 1:59.58 and Bowlus fourth in

2:01.64 to improve.

Coach Doug Volding’s Sea Kings, who finished 4-1 in PCL dual meets

this year behind unbeaten Uni, will get another shot at the Trojans in

Friday’s finals at 1 p.m.

In the prelims, the top eight individuals in each event qualified for

the finals.

“It’ll be interesting,” said Volding, whose team had five other

runner-up finishes in the prelims, including McKay’s No. 2-qualifying

time in the 500 free with a personal-best 5:20.53.

CdM’s Jordan Anae qualified second in the 200 individual medley

(2:16.77) and 100 breaststroke (1:13.11), while Vivian Liao was second in

the 50 free (26.34). Bowlus also had a runner-up qualifying time in the

100 free (56.06).

CdM’s Christina Hewko qualified third in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.50

and qualified fifth in the 500 free with a personal-best 5:38.19.

Jessica Harkins (fourth in 1:09.62) and Heather Hapeman (eighth in

1:11.64) also qualified in the 100 back for the Sea Kings, while teammate

Niki Hendrickson advanced in the 100 butterfly (third in 1:05.73) and 200 IM (sixth in 2:29.79).

In the 100 fly, Corona del Mar’s Hayley Sheetz qualified sixth in

1:10.37 and eighth in the 50 free (27.65), while Kelli Kline qualified

eighth in the 100 fly (1:13.11).

CdM had two other qualifiers in the 100 free with fourth-place Liao

(57.01) and eighth-place Hapeman (59.47).

Flo Rodenhuis qualified seventh in the 100 breast (1:18.07) for CdM,

while Costa Mesa had two swimmers advance to the PCL finals: Shirley Peng

in the 50 free (fourth in 26.91) and Michelle Payne in the 500 free

(seventh in 6:49.28).