Sailors need to bounce back

Melanie Neff

The Newport Harbor High boys swim team has tallied the numbers, and

right now they don’t add up.

After Irvine snagged four of the top five spots in the 100-yard

breaststroke, the final race in the Sea View League preliminaries

Tuesday at Newport Harbor, all the pressure was put back on the

Sailors. The Vaqueros outscored the Sailors, 63-8, in that one event.

“It’s going to be tight between us and Irvine,” Newport Harbor

Coach Jason Lynch said. “They just killed us in the breaststroke. We

are going to have to win both of the freestyle relays, because they

are going to take the [individual medley relay].”

If every swimmer finishes exactly like they did in the prelims,

Irvine holds a 38-point edge, without the relays. So the Sailors need

to pick up some extra points somewhere.

They dominated the Vaqueros in the 100 freestyle, with Nathan

Weiner, Sean McGhie, Bryan Auer and Dan Furman all finishing in the

top 13. Irvine qualified only two swimmers.

Weiner, who qualified third (49.78) behind Joseph Levyssohn-Sil

(49.31) of Laguna Hills and Sandy Hohener (49.71) of Foothill, can

pick up some valuable points for the Sailors if he can grab the win

Friday.

“That’s going to be a close race,” Weiner said. “Look at those

times.”

The edge in the 50 freestyle went to Irvine. McGhie was the second

qualifier in 22.69 behind Aliso Niguel’s Austin Luther, but the

Vaqueros earned the third and fourth spots, as well as 10 and 12.

Senior Andrew Cole, the only club swimmer on the Sailors’ squad,

did his part, earning the top seed in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke.

He cruised in the medley, but was still able to beat the rest of the

field by more than two seconds, with a time of 2:00.57.

Armstrong was also impressive in the 200 IM, cutting six seconds

of his seed time and qualifying sixth in 2:09.51.

In the 100 backstroke, Cole blistered the rest of the field by

more than five seconds in 53.95. Irvine and Newport Harbor swept the

backstroke, taking the top eight qualifying spots. For the Sailors,

Brent Armstrong was third (59.57), James Jackson was fifth (1:00.67)

and Weiner was seventh (1:00.86).

In the 100 butterfly, Michael Bury can pick up an extra point if

he can edge out second-seeded Nate Wilcox of Irvine, or even better,

Irvine’s top-seeded Josh Clark. Bury swam in the same heat with

Wilcox and held the lead in the final 100 yards, but Wilcox pulled

ahead in the final 50 and got the win in 56.22. Bury came in at

56.49. Clark won his heat in 55.77.

In the 200 freestyle, Bryan Auer sliced almost three seconds off

his seed time, swimming a 1:50.45 to qualify third. Irvine’s Jason

Kim took top honors in the race at 1:47.05. The closest race of the

prelims came in a heat of the 500 freestyle. Newport Harbor’s Andrew

Belden and Ross Sinclair swam together and were neck-and-neck from

wire to wire, with Belden just out-touching Sinclair. Belden clocked

a 5:02.24, Sinclair a 5:02.35. J.W. Krumpholz of Foothill won his

heat to take the top seed in 4:53.36 and Irvine’s Jason Kim won his

heat in 4:53.97 for the second spot. Despite the numbers, Bury likes

his team’s chance of keeping Irvine from winning its ninth straight

league title.

“We lost [Ryan] Lean and [Aaron] Piersol, but I think a lot of our

juniors are stepping it up,” Bury said. “I think we have more heart

than Irvine and that counts for a lot.”

The Sailors and Vaqueros tied in dual-meet action during the

season. Irvine won the league title last season, but the Sailors went

on to win the Southern Section Division I title.

The girls prelims are today at 2 p.m. at Newport Harbor. The boys

and girls varsity finals will be at 3 p.m. Friday at Newport Harbor.