Eagles ready to rock

Bryce Alderton

Same team, different league.

Those were the words Estancia High boys swim coach John Carpenter,

in his 24th year with the program, gave when asked to give his

impressions of the season that has begun.

The Eagles return a corps from a team that made strides to finish

fifth in the Pacific Coast League last season, but now will compete

in the seven-school Golden West League.

“Our goal is to finish in the top three in league,” Carpenter

said. “If we can do that, we have a shot to win it (at league

finals). Orange and Ocean View, on paper, are stronger than us, but

they have more swimmers. And, of course, our meet with Costa Mesa

should be good.”

The swimmers Estancia does have include the only two seniors,

Frank Gamboa, and Skipper Todd. Gamboa qualified for the PCL finals

last season in the 500-yard freestyle.

The junior class features Nathan Marsteller, Paul Collier and

Anthony Hermann to go with sophomores Sean Goodman, Jason Echanique,

Richard McElveney and Matt Metkovich. Freshman Danny Aldrete, Devon

Mellin, and Chad Kunnert complement the upperclassmen.

“We lost two swimmers last year, so we basically have the same

nucleus, with the addition of people like a Chad Kunnert,” Carpenter

said.

One of those swimmers Carpenter lost is senior Jess Hellmich, who

is playing on the volleyball team this season. Hellmich, along with

Gamboa, qualified for the PCL finals after clocking a personal-best

1:02.98 in the 100 butterfly at the league preliminaries.

“He was one of our best swimmers, so we’ll definitely miss him,”

said Carpenter, who, like most coaches, wants to qualify as many

individuals for the CIF preliminaries as possible. Estancia will

compete in Division III this spring, after competing in Division II

last year.

He is optimistic about the possibility of Gamboa and Kunnert

making the CIF prelims.

“We haven’t had kids going to CIF since something like 1994,”

Carpenter said. “Gamboa could make it in the 500 free and maybe the

50 free while Kunnert could go in the 200 free and 100 backstroke.

Those two guys should be able to hit the time standards set for

Division III (which are less demanding than those in Division II).”

Estancia has started 3-0, giving Carpenter added optimism, not

just for this year, but for the future as well.

“The kids get more psyched up and swim better when the school

announces the swim team is 3-0,” Carpenter said. “We want to get more

kids into the program.”