Laguna Beach downs Tustin in boys’ water polo

Laguna Beach High never trailed Monday in its nonleague boys’ water

polo match against visiting Tustin, posting an 8-7 victory over the

Tillers.

Mike Dick scored a match-best five goals for Laguna, which ran its

record to 6-3.

Adam Kaplan, Cameron Brinkman and Johnny Holcomb each scored once

for the Breakers.

Sophomore goalie Warren Murrel had eight saves.

“It’s still a learning process,” Laguna coach Rick McKee said of

his team’s progress this season. “We’re doing some things better than

we did last game, but still need to improve in other areas of our

game.”

Last weekend, Laguna competed in one of the county’s top events,

the South Coast Tournament.

The Breakers finished 17th in the 32-team tournament.

Laguna went 3-2 against the competition, beating Capistrano Valley

(13-7), Poway (11-4) and Punahou of Hawaii (9-4).

The Breakers are now competing in the 32-team Villa Park

Tournament.

Laguna opened tournament play Thursday against Saddleback and will

play their next tournament game today at Aliso Viejo High.

In cross-country, Laguna’s varsity boys’ and girls’ teams traveled

to Palo Alto last weekend to run in the prestigious Stanford

Invitational.

The event attracted many of the state’s top cross-country

programs.

Laguna’s boys’ team, the defending State Division IV champion,

finished third out of 25 teams competing in Division IV.

San Lorenzo Valley and Colfax, two northern California schools,

finished ahead of Laguna in the boys’ team standings.

“The Stanford Invite has a big-race feel,” Laguna boys’ coach Dave

Brobeck said. “Being the defending state champs, we are now clearly a

marked team. It was really a luxury in the past to show up to races

in relative obscurity. Those days seem over, and people really want

to beat us.... There are a lot of programs who have made big gains

over the year, and we are running at about 75% of full capacity.”

Also at the Stanford Invitational, Laguna’s Alex Crawley finished

fourth in the girls’ Division IV race. Crawley ran a 19:00.

In girls’ golf, Laguna scored a 216-258 Pacific Coast League

victory over Beckman.

The 216 team score against Beckman shattered the school record for

lowest team score, which previously was 235, coach Barbara Williams

said.

The win evened the Breakers’ league record at 1-1; their overall record is 2-2.