Sailors sprint into finals

Rick Devereux

Apparently, being a water polo school has its advantages. At the

beginning of the boys swim season, Newport Harbor High Coach Jason

Lynch had to erase a message from his chalkboard that read, “Newport

Harbor is a water polo team that swims.” But because the Sailors are

so proficient at water polo (they made it to the second round of the

CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs the past two years) the

sprint swim events have excelled.

Case in point was Wednesday’s Sea View League preliminaries at the

Newport Harbor pool. All four Sailors who swam in the 50-yard

freestyle qualified for the championship final to be held Friday,

also at Newport.

“It’s great,” Lynch said. “We try to pride ourselves that we can

swim sprint freestyle because that translates into water polo for us.

I think the guys take pride in that. We train a lot for the freestyle

and sprint freestyle, so I think they’re pretty prepared for that.”

The top Tar in the 50 free was sophomore Daniel Furman, who blazed

through all competition with a 21.88 finish, the top qualifying mark.

Senior Sean McGhie qualified fourth (22.31), followed by sophomore

Telford Cottam (fifth in 22.60) and senior Michael Bury (seventh in

22.71).

But it was Furman’s finish that had people talking. Before the

season started, Furman had a personal goal to finish faster than 22.5

in the 50 free. Wednesday’s time not only beat his personal goal by

.62, but came close to breaking the school record of 21.51.

“I do think that’s a possibility for him by the time he’s a

senior,” Lynch said regarding Furman’s chances of owning the school

record in the near future. “He’s only a sophomore. He’s going to grow

and get stronger, which is all he needs really.”

“I want to win league and it’s going to be tight because the 50 is

always close,” Furman said. “I want to win that and if I could get

the record, I would be really happy. But I’m not going to set that as

one of my goals.”

“The guy he’s going against from Aliso Niguel [Austin Luther] is a

junior, so he’s a little more experienced,” Lynch said, but also

added that Furman has a great shot at winning the event.

The only other Tar to qualify first for Friday was McGhie with a

48.12 finish in the 100 free. Furman qualified eighth in the 100

free.

“Even though the 100 is still a sprint, I think it’s too long. I

definitely like the 50 a lot more,” Furman said.

Other Sailors swimming Friday in championship finals are Clay

Jorth (200 and 500 free), James Jackson (200 individual medley and

100 backstroke), Eric Carlson (200 IM and 100 back), Kyle Sherman

(100 back) and Carson Hill (100 breaststroke). Along with his

qualifying 50 time, Bury also secured a spot in the 100 butterfly

final.

The 15 spots for Friday, at least one in every event, are the most

of any Sea View team, edging out Irvine (14) and Foothill. The fact

that Newport did so well is a tribute to the mental concentration of

the team considering many swimmers are also taking final exams during

the day.

“I think it affected two kids in particular that took [advanced

placement] tests today,” Lynch said. “I think it’s just draining,

emotionally draining. They come out here and they’re just ... We had

these other kids taking the tests and rushing out here and barely

getting here.”

One such swimmer was Jorth, who finished fourth and eighth,

respectively, in the 200 and 500 free.

“I didn’t do as well as I could. I was kind of stressed out

because I had an AP test today. I feel like I will go a lot faster on

Friday. I wasn’t feeling it today,” he said.

Even with the distractions, the Tars impressed their coach.

“Overall, I think we swam really well,” Lynch said. “I think it

was a great team performance.”

Only the top eight advance for a chance at the league championship

Friday, but many Newport swimmers qualified for consolation finals

(contested among those who had the ninth through 16th fastest times

Wednesday).

Sherman was .11 away from making into the championship final in

the 100 fly, finishing in 58.0.

Other consolation finalists from Newport include: Cottam (13th in

the 100 free), Michael Robinson (200 free, 100 breaststroke), Trevor

Armstrong (100 IM, 100 breaststroke), Aaron Blei (200 IM, 100

breaststroke), Max Robison (500 free, 100 fly), Hunter Alvarado (500

free), Brett Auer (200 free), Riley Hayes (500 free) and Sean

McDonald (100 back).