Estancia sweeps hollow showdown

Rick Devereux

The showdown between the top two boys swimming programs in the Golden

West League failed to materialize before the meet even began.

Due to unspecified disciplinary reasons, Costa Mesa High Coach Tim

Postiff benched 10 of his athletes, leaving Estancia with an easy

118-21 blowout win in the crosstown rivalry meet.

“The kids were disappointed because they really wanted to swim

against them today,” Eagles Coach John Carpenter said. “It wasn’t

even a swim meet today.”

“I sat 10 boys and 2 girls for disciplinary reasons. That’s all

I’m going to say about that,” Postiff said.

Two Estancia swimmers posted personal bests despite swimming

against fellow Eagles for most of the day. Paul Collier swam 2:04.36

in the 200-yard freestyle and Chad Kunert finished the 500 freestyle

in 5:13.24. But Carpenter wasn’t happy with the situation.

“Obviously our 15 guys can beat their three swimmers,” he said.

The only Costa Mesa boys to earn points were senior Jarrod Clever,

sophomore Chris Medina and freshman John Roach. Clever was second in

the 200 individual medley and Medina claimed second in the 100 and

500 freestyles, as well as a third in the 200 free. Roach finished

second in the 100 butterfly.

“We swam very close against Saddleback last week and we have

Orange next, but we wanted to see how we could do against Costa

Mesa,” Carpenter said. “Our kids swam against themselves.”

Without the yard stick of Costa Mesa swimmers to measure their

ability, the Estancia team needed to find inner drive to give a full

effort.

“What motivated us was that we were shooting for second or third

place in the league,” Carpenter said.

The league finals are scheduled for May 6 at Orange High.