Mustangs sweep Golden West finals

Rick Devereux

The Golden West League swim finals were supposed to be a close meet,

but the Costa Mesa High boys handily defeated all opponents as the

girls edged out a victory Thursday at the Orange High pool. The

Mustangs boys amassed 408 points, beating their closest opponent by

182 points, while the girls edged out second-place Estancia, 337-310.

Costa Mesa Coach Tim Postiff gave a lot of credit to the Eagles, who

finished league dual meets undefeated, for the Mustang victory.

“I think the Estancia girls pushed us to perform our best,”

Postiff said.

Costa Mesa performing at its best was a sight to behold,

especially during the girls 400-yard freestyle relay. Allyson Harris,

Carley Millian, Annie Le and Sarah Bowman cut through the water

faster than a catamaran on their way to a league record 4:00.99

finish for Mesa. The previous record was 4:01.00 set by Rosary High

in 1995. Estancia finished second in 4:09.74.

Postiff was excited about the record, but was even more pleased

with Costa Mesa’s showing in the girls 500 free where Christine

Twohig (5:48.70), Harris (5:51.21) and Patricia Schuppert (5:53.29)

finished one-two-three.

“That 500 was a great race for us,” Postiff said.

Twohig also won the championship in the 200 free (2:12.13) while

Bowman was the fastest in the 100 free (59.14). Estancia’s Sydney

Barloon finished behind Bowman in the 100 free (59.71) and Marilyn

Reich grabbed second in the 200 individual medley (2:28.48) and 100

breaststroke (1:15.45) for the Eagles. Harris came in third in the

200 IM for the Mustangs and Le was third in the 100 breaststroke.

Mesa’s Millian was second in the 100 backstroke followed by

Estancia’s Melissa Buchmann. Jessica Steenhard finished third in the

100 butterfly for the Mustangs.

“I felt a little tired from the prelims but I’m really proud of my

performance,” Reich said. “We put up the best fight we could. We

could have done better but we’re still happy.”

Also happy for Estancia was boys coach John Carpenter.

“Overall everyone dropped their times. Every single swimmer, every

guy on the team dropped their times and that’s all I can ask. I

thought they did a great job and I’m real proud of them,” he said.

Estancia’s Chad Kunert swam CIF Southern Section Division III

automatic times in both the 200 free (1:51.97) and 500 free

(5:09.85). Kunert’s team mate Paul Collier came in second in the 200

free (1:57.42) followed by Mesa’s Evan Spencer (1:57.63) and Adam

Adamowicz (2:00.42). Collier also came in second in the 100 free

(53.08), behind Costa Mesa sophomore Kyle Thorsness (50.35).

Thorsness was first in the 100 backstroke (1:00.33) as well. Jarrod

Cleaver (1:04.98) and Luke Yellin (1:05.12) were third and fourth,

respectively, for Costa Mesa in the 100 back.

Also winning a league title for the Mustangs was Brian Tipton, who

beat out Estancia’s Sean Goodman in the 200 IM. Yellin finished third

in the 200 IM for Costa Mesa. Tipton came in second in the 100

breaststroke, followed by Mustang team mate Marc Geil. Costa Mesa

also finished second and third in the 500 because of Adamowicz and

Christian Medina, respectively. Chris Darnes grabbed third in the 50

free for Mesa and Spencer was second in the 100 fly for the Mustangs.