Sea Kings look to finish the job

LONG BEACH ? In the moments after the CIF Southern Section Division II swimming preliminaries, Corona del Mar High girls’ swim Coach Doug Volding allowed himself a little bit of swagger.

“The stage is set,” Volding said. “University will be tough, but I think we’re going to do it. If I was a betting man, I’d bet on us.”

The Sea Kings placed swimmers in all but one event final during Friday’s qualifying. The performance puts Corona del Mar in position to win back the Division II championship it lost to University last season.

The Division II finals take place today at 4 p.m. at Belmont Plaza Pool.

University beat Corona del Mar by four points in last year’s finals, something that still resonates with team members this year.

“Losing by four points last year has us all very motivated,” said senior Lexie Shue, who qualified in the 200-yard freestyle, 500 freestyle and two relays. “We don’t want to lose again.”

Shue, who had the fastest time among the competitors in the 500 freestyle going in, had the third-fastest qualifying time Friday with a time of 4 minutes, 58.07 seconds. She qualified seventh in the 200 freestyle.

“You definitely want to save something for the finals,” Shue said.

Other top swimmers for the Sea Kings included senior Ashley Chandler and junior Stephanie Gabert, both of whom qualified for the finals in two individual events and two relays. Chandler was second in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.23 and eighth in the 100 freestyle at 53.33.

Gabert, using a different approach than Shue, went all out with the fastest qualifying time in both the 200 individual medley (2:05.24) and the 100 breaststroke (1:04.48).

“I gave it my full effort,” Gabert said. “I treated it like it was the finals, because you never know if you’ll actually make it to the finals.”

The Corona del Mar boys were led by sophomore Yutaro Yamashita, who qualified for the finals in a pair of events. Yamashita recorded season-best times of 1:44.28 in the 200 freestyle (seventh place) and 4:42.89 in the 500 freestyle (sixth place).

The Sea Kings qualified for the consolation finals in the 400 freestyle relay (Yamashita, Michael Berry, Scott Sanford and Jacob Murphy had an 11th-place time of 3:18.91) and the 200 medley relay (Rudolph Baldoni, Murphy, Yamashita and Berry clocked in with a 14th-place time of 1:44.28).

Murphy also qualified for the consolation finals in the 100 breaststroke with a ninth-place time of 1:01.05.

“I can’t complain, some guys had great times today,” Corona del Mar Coach Barry O’Dea said. “There’s a lot of fast swimmers here today.”