Free reign

Mike Sciacca

To hear Huntington Beach High co-head coach Gary Yeo tell it, Bryce

Elser is a throwback to Oiler swimmers of yesteryear.

Yeo should know.

A member of the class of 1976, Yeo swam at Huntington in the

mid-1970s, a time, he said, when several of the school’s swim records

were set -- many of which still stand.

For the past four years, Elser, the third of three brothers to

have standout careers at Huntington, has powered his way through the

pool, entering the 2004 season as the county’s top returning 200-yard

freestyler.

Nothing the 6-foot-3 18-year-old senior has done in the water thus

far this season has altered that opinion.

He’s made his way into the school’s record books by swimming the

200-yard freestyle in a record one minute, 41.99 seconds, and admits

to having designs on becoming the record-holder in the 50- and

100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly before his high school

career ends in May.

“He’s an incredible swimmer with a great work ethic,” said Yeo,

co-head coach of the Oilers swim program along with Cory Tague, who

formerly coached at Edison. “He is very committed to the sport and

has his head in the game the whole time.

“Not only is Bryce an exceptional athlete, but he’s also an

incredibly nice kid who is very responsible and a very good student.

An athlete like this comes around only once in a while.”

Elser is following in the same vein as his older brothers, John

and Matt, both of whom made their mark in the Oilers aquatics

programs.

The three also work as Huntington Beach city lifeguards.

“I grew up in the water,” Bryce Elser said. “We all started

swimming with the Pacific Sands Cabana Club team during the summers.

That’s how we were introduced to the sport of swimming.”

Elser has been swimming for 11 years with the Golden West Swim

Club, practicing both early mornings and late afternoons at the

Golden West College pool.

His wake-up call during the week is 4:30 a.m., and he estimates

that he’s in the pool practicing up to 16 hours per week.

“He has exceptional time management,” Yeo said.

His once-longer hair, “fried and greenish,” he said, from hours of

swimming, has been cut short.

At Huntington, he swims just about everything, he said, and the

races he swims vary “from meet to meet.”

Usually, though, he swims one free event and the 100-yard

butterfly -- both his areas of expertise.

One race, though, Elser said that he may have “grown out of it” --

the 200-yard freestyle.

“At my last meet, it was the only event I didn’t improve my time

in,” he said, adding that he might not swim the event during

Tuesday’s Sunset League meet at Esperanza.

Elser finished third in the CIF-Southern Section Division I

200-yard freestyle competition as he set the school record last year

and also qualified in the 100-yard butterfly, which he finished in

fifth-place.

He’s already swam to qualifying times for this year’s CIF meet on

May 14, the fourth time in as many years that he’s qualified for the

big event at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

“I hope to win CIF in at least one event,” said Elser, who hasn’t

decided which college to attend, but is looking to swim at a Division

I school. “That would be a great way to cap my high school swimming

career.”