Looking to make a splash

Mike Sciacca

The Laguna Beach High swim program will be looking to make a splash

today when its sends two relay teams and one individual to the

CIF-Southern Section Division II Prelims at Belmont Plaza in Long

Beach.

Laguna’s boys’ and girls’ 4x100 free relays teams each qualified

for the prelims, as did junior Shawn Pfendler, who qualified in the

100-yard backstroke and will swim the final leg on the boys’ 4x100

team.

“I’m really happy with the efforts our swimmers gave at league

finals,” said Rick McKee, an assistant to head coach Andrew Priest.

“They really swam hard, and their times showed.”

Pfendler had made the consideration cut for the prelims earlier

this season, but bettered his time in the 100-yard backstroke by

nearly 1 1/2 seconds, McKee said, at the Pacific Coast League finals,

which were held last Friday at the Laguna pool.

The girls’ 4x100 free relay team, composed of freshmen Jessica

McKee, Breanna Duplisea and Hailey Huling and senior Jackie Reed,

also made the consideration cut earlier in the season, but solidified

a berth in today’s prelims by shaving 3.4 seconds off their best time

at league finals.

“I think we’ll be well-rested for prelims, because none of us will

be swimming in any other race,” Duplisea said. “Coach Andrew has

really been working with us on our strokes and we’ve become more

involved with each other as a team, as the season has progressed.

We’ll be ready Friday.”

The boys’ 4x100 free relay team, made up of juniors Ryan Fair and

Trevor Frimond, freshman Cameron Brinkman and Pfendler, was

outstanding at league finals.

The squad knocked off seven seconds from their previous best time,

and the effort qualified them for today’s prelims.

“These kids did it with a lot of determination on their part,”

McKee said. “Some of them wanted to have a special swim season

instead of just having a swim season.

“Ryan Fair swam a 50.4 split on the opening leg of the boys race,

and that got us off to a hot start. Trevor Frimond also did extremely

well. On the girls’ side, Breanna Duplisea swam really hard. She

pumped up our team and rallied the girls. Jackie Reed, the only

senior on our team, did a great job, too.”

Pfendler, who is on the Laguna swim, baseball and track and field

teams this fall, comes into today’s 100-yard butterfly with an entry

time of 59.26 and is seeded 31st out of 32 swimmers in the division.

McKee says Pfendler needs to drop only three seconds off his time,

in order to place in the Top 5.

The Top 16 in each event advance to Saturday’s finals, also at

Belmont Plaza.

“He’s quite capable of that, too,” McKee said. “It’s a tight field

and times are really close. Shawn’s a multi-talented athlete who can

do a lot of things.”

The girls’ 4x100 free relay team has an entry time of 3:58.06, and

is seeded 29th out of 30 teams.

McKee figures the Breakers need to drop six seconds off their time

if they hope to advance to Saturday’s finals.

The boys’ 4x100 free relay team is seeded 28th out of 32 teams and

has an entry time of 3:30.55.