Sailors absorb lessons

Rick Devereux

The Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach is intimidating even for

experienced swimmers, so the Newport Harbor High coaches were not

disappointed with the performance of their young teams at the CIF

Southern Section Division I preliminaries Wednesday.

“I’m not disappointed at all with our guys,” boys Coach Jason

Lynch said after the meet. “We have a lot of sophomores and I knew

that this would be a big adjustment.”

“It’s hard to go from preparing for the league finals and then

switching gears for CIF,” Newport Harbor girls coach Ken LaMont said.

The top swimmer for the Sailor boys was Daniel Furman, who

qualified 11th in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.81, a personal best.

The sophomore will compete in the consolation final Friday, also at

Belmont Plaza.

The top eight qualifiers Wednesday advanced to Friday’s

championship finals.

Also in the consolation final in the boys 200 free relay will be

the team of Kyle Sherman, Michael Bury, Telford Cottam and Furman.

The unit qualified 12th in 1:29.98.

The only other Sailor to shave time off an entry time was Leah

Robertson. Robertson, who competed at Belmont last year as a

freshman, qualified 13th in the 50 free (24.97) and 14th in the 100

free (54.31). She also swam anchor in the 400 free relay, which

qualified 10th.

That 400 free relay also included Anne Belden, Kayley Oka and

Melissa Wheeler.

“There is a lot of pressure at the Belmont,” Robertson said. “Last

year was nerve-wracking as a freshman, but, being here before helped

me this year.”

Other girls consolation qualifying times were turned in by Oka in

the 100 butterfly (16th in 1:00.7) and Belden in the 100 free (16th

in 54.49).

Both the boys and girls finished third in the Sea View League

Friday, an accomplishment both coaches felt drained their athletes.

“All season long, we were trying to motivate them to win league

and prepare for league,” LaMont sad. “We had 35 girls preparing and,

all of a sudden, we have seven preparing for CIF and the rest are

talking about water polo.”

“We definitely peaked last week at league finals,” Lynch said.

“It’s very difficult to swim [at the Belmont] because the emotions

are so high here. We’ve been here almost six hours, so it’s hard to

stay focused unless you’ve been here before.”

Cottam, a sophomore, said the high energy and pressure was

intimidating.

“I didn’t know what to expect here,” he said. “I don’t think the

we were mentally ready.”