Sailors settle for bronze

Rick Devereux

After seven years of supremacy, the Irvine High girls swim team was

not crowned Sea View League champions. Newport Harbor High Coach Ken

LaMont wished he could say it was his Sailors that knocked off the

Vaqueros, but he was still happy with the outcome.

“I would have liked nothing more than to bump Irvine out of there,

but I’m still very happy Irvine has been dethroned,” LaMont said.

In an extremely close Sea View League swim championship at the

Newport pool, the Foothill girls earned 456 points to edge out

Irvine’s 441 points, followed by Newport with 421.

The Sailors earned nine berths into the CIF Southern Section

Division I preliminaries with automatic qualifying times and seven

others swam consideration times for the girls.

“They all did great,” LaMont said. “We set a goal that everyone

was supposed to move up a spot or at least maintain, and almost

everybody moved up.”

Anne Belden earned the highest individual honors for Newport,

swimming into second place in the 100-yard freestyle (54.13). Belden

also was third in the 100 backstroke (1:01.04). Melissa Wheeler had a

strong day for Newport, collecting two third-place finishes in the

200 freestyle (1:57.93) and the 500 free (5:2158). Kayley Oka was

third in the 200 individual medley (2:13.22) and Ashling Taylor was

third in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.35).

The boys also finished third, amassing 395 points, trailing

second-place Foothill (437 points) and champion Irvine (453.5).

Newport had 19 chances to qualify for CIF heading into the league

finals. Six Sailors swam automatic times and the remaining 13 swam

consideration times.

“We did a great job,” Coach Jason Lynch said. “We swam fastest

times with every single kid.”

Sophomore Dan Furman came in second in the 50 free (21.90),

slightly slower than his qualifying time Wednesday (21.88). But

Furman was distracted by AP tests that went all the way up to his

start time.

Two Newport swimmers earned third-place finishes: Sean McGhie in

the 100 free (48:43) and Eric Carlson in the 100 back (57.07). The

200 free relay (1:28.95) and 400 relay (3:17.88)both finished second,

and the 200 medley finished third (1:42.54).