BOYS’ SWIMMING PREVIEW:Newport’s seniors stick around

Newport Harbor High is, admittedly, a water polo school that also competes in swimming.

But the water polo seniors this year are trading in two-meter set and shots, for split-times and strokes. They’re sticking around for swim season.

Four of Newport Harbor’s five water polo seniors — Bryce McLain, Blake Hockenbury, Kyle McGhie and Nick Yeager — are also competing on the Sailors’ boys swimming team.

“When it comes down to it, we are a water polo team that swims,” McGhie said. “Water polo, it’s just really the sport that we love the most. It brings us together. But all this workout that we do during swim season, which is probably harder than what we do during water polo season, helps build us up for the upcoming polo season.”

McGhie said the team swims about 30,000 yards a week. It should help the seniors stay in great shape for next fall when the polo season comes around, even if they will be playing collegiately instead of for the Tars.

That will be a transition for this senior class, which has been training together since the boys were about 10 years old.

“We’ve been friends for so long,” Hockenbury said. “It’s a lot easier to push yourself and really go 100% every day, knowing that it’s the same group of guys with you. It just makes it a lot easier to stick with the program and stay in shape, even though, as seniors, you want to quit and move on with your life.”

McLain plans to play water polo for Pepperdine, McGhie for the U.S. Naval Academy, Hockenbury for USC and Yeager for either Occidental College or George Washington University.

McLain, who was the goalie for the CIF Southern Section Division I semifinalist Tars water polo team, said the close-knit group won’t let “senioritis” kick in for any member as the swim season unfolds.

“You don’t want to take a semester off your senior year and get used to relaxing and hanging out with friends, then try to go to college,” McLain said. “It’ll just hit you, where you’ll have to juggle school and water polo all over again. We don’t want to lose sight of the motivation.

“To get to college and want to play water polo but you physically can’t do it, that’d be really depressing.”

Newport Harbor Coach Jason Lynch, who heads up both the boys’ swimming and water polo programs, said he’s proud of his seniors for sticking with it.

“It’s the first time we’ve had all but one of the water polo players swim,” Lynch said. “That’s nice for the program. They definitely have some goals to continue their water polo playing career, and that’s why they’re out there right now.”

The Sailors swim team will definitely need the water polo seniors’ experience. Back-to-back Sea View League champions, Newport Harbor is now in the Sunset League, which boasts some of the top teams in Orange County like Fountain Valley, Esperanza, Edison and Los Alamitos.

“It’s going to be hard,” Lynch said. “We’re going to go from winning [the 2006 Sea View League finals] by over 100 points, to possibly not winning any league dual meets.”

The seniors realize that, similarly to how Newport Harbor is considered a “water polo school,” many of the other Sunset League teams seem to be “swimming schools.”

Still, they remain optimistic.

“A harder opponent’s going to bring out the best in you,” McGhie said. “We want to take league again this year and just have Newport pride.”

And that’s what it’s all about for the four Tars seniors, the pride to keep working and working. It’s really the only way they know how to train.

“While water polo and swimming are different sports, the way you approach them really isn’t that different at all,” Yeager said. “The thing that Coach Lynch is always trying to teach us is that whatever you’re doing, you give it everything you have.

“We all love water polo a lot more, but we’re going to give everything we have to the swim team.”

COSTA MESA

COACH: Patty Smith (second year)

2006 FINISH: Golden West League champions.

KEY RETURNERS: Sam Edman (Jr.), distance freestyle; John Roche (Sr.), butterfly; Cody Serrano (So.), sprint free; Dustin Serrano (So.), distance free; Skyler Twohig (Jr.), butterfly, IM; James Fowler (Jr.), sprint free; Dane Shambrook (So.), breast.

KEY NEWCOMERS: Travis Wright (So.), freestyle, backstroke; Chingiz Bigalimov (Fr.), breaststroke.

KEY DATES: at Estancia, April 3; at Laguna Beach, April 25.

OUTLOOK: Like the Costa Mesa girls’ team, the boys are a young team, with just one senior in John Roche. But they have a standout in junior Sam Edman, who may eventually have CIF Division II qualifying times in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 freestyles.

Fowler (50 and 100 freestyle) and Roche (100 butterfly) are also right on tap to requalify for CIF, Smith said.

“These guys have amazed me at the amount of yardage they’re doing, the hard sets they’re doing,” Smith said. “They’re doing close to 2,000 yards more per practice than they did last year. That’s one reason they’re swimming really fast right now.”

SAGE HILL

COACHES: Abby Zern and Cari Knowlton (first year)

2006 FINISH: Second in Academy League

KEY RETURNERS: Perry Pang (Sr.), butterfly, freestyle; Dan Chen (Sr.), butterfly, freestyle; Jimmy Miller (Jr.), 200 IM, freestyle, backstroke; Beau Caillouette (Jr.), sprint freestyle; Ryan Barth (Jr.), breaststroke; Nick Wan (So.), backstroke, IM; Michael Ljungh (So.), freestyle.

KEY NEWCOMERS: Andrew Dorne (Fr.), distance freestyle; Jake Blitzer (Fr.), butterfly, IM.

KEY DATES: vs. Whitney, April 19 at Corona del Mar; vs. Oxford, April 26 at CdM.

OUTLOOK: First-year co-coaches Zern and Knowlton, who both swam at UC Irvine, have two club swimmers on the boys’ team in Ljungh and Dorne. They also have a hungry team after the Lightning finished just six points behind first-place Whitney at last year’s Academy League meet.

Pang and Wan both qualified for the CIF Division IV meet last year, in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, respectively.

“As coaches, we want the kids to realize it’s a commitment, we want them to improve their times and to have fun,” Knowlton said. “We’ve seen some major improvements already this year.”

NEWPORT HARBOR

COACH: Jason Lynch (sixth year)

2006 FINISH: 6-1, Sea View League champion.

KEY RETURNERS: Clinton Jorth (Jr.), 100 free, 200 free; David Linden (So.), butterfly, 50 free; Max Joseph (Sr.), IM, butterfly, 500 free; Brandon Parole (Jr.), IM; Kyle Fults (Jr.), sprint freestyle; Bryce McLain (Sr.), IM, breaststroke; Colin McKibbin (Jr.), distance free; Andy Hayes (So.), breast, fly; Spencer Richley (Jr.), sprint free; Myles Christian (Jr.), fly, breast; Nick Yeager (Sr.); Blake Hockenbury (Sr.); Kyle McGhie (Sr.).

KEY NEWCOMERS: Zach Osadche (So.), backstroke, 200 free; Hunter Owen (Jr.), breast, IM.

KEY DATES: at Los Alamitos, March 23; at Edison, March 27; at home against Marina, April 24.

OUTLOOK: The Sailors easily won their second straight Sea View League title last May, beating second-place Irvine by over 100 points. Things will be much more difficult this year in the Sunset League, which boasts Fountain Valley, Edison, Los Alamitos and Esperanza, all top programs in Orange County.

“It’s the toughest league around, by far,” Lynch said.

Newport Harbor, by comparison, has only one club swimmer in Max Joseph. But the Tars are strong in the freestyle, already using that strength to beat CdM on March 14. It may be the progress in stroke events, however, that determines how Newport will do.

“I don’t know how we’ll fare,” Lynch said. “With freestyle being six out of the 11 events, we’re hoping to be competitive. We do have some depth, so hopefully that will help us make the meets closer.”

ESTANCIA

COACH: John Carpenter (28th year)

2006 FINISH: Second in Golden West League.

KEY RETURNERS: Jeff Crosson (Jr.), 200 IM, 500 free; Chris MacLean (Jr.), breaststroke; Josh Young (Jr.), freestyle.

KEY NEWCOMERS: Tyler Wayman (Jr.), butterfly, freestyle; Chris Whiteside (Jr.), breaststroke, freestyle; Ramin Tasbihchi (Jr.), freestyle; Kyle Lux (Jr.), freestyle, breaststroke.

KEY DATES: at Laguna Beach, March 27; at home against Costa Mesa, April 3; at home against Westminster, April 26.

OUTLOOK: The Eagles have no seniors, and also have no club swimmers. They do have some talent, led by Jeff Crosson, who Carpenter thinks has a legit shot of qualifying for CIF in the 500 freestyle. And, they also are in their first full season back in their pool, after it underwent renovations much of last swim season.

Every dual meet but one this season is a home meet for Estancia.

“Everyone has established personal-best times the first couple of meets, and that’s really what we shoot for,” Carpenter said. “That way, they can come to practice with a goal in mind. It’s a pretty positive group.”

CORONA DEL MAR

COACH: Barry O’Dea (second year)

2006 FINISH: 2-3, fourth in Pacific Coast League.

KEY RETURNERS: Mike Berry (Sr.), sprint freestyle; R.J. Baldoni (Sr.), sprint freestyle; Chris Cottrell (Jr.), 200 IM, 100 backstroke; Yutaro Yamashita (Jr.), 100 fly, 500 free; Brian Peotter (Sr.), sprint freestyle; Russell Mycorn (Sr.), breaststroke; Omar Mobarek (Sr.), breast; Greg Sanford (Sr.), IM, breast, butterfly; Ryan Hultman (Sr.), fly; Evan Zepfel (Jr.), distance freestyle; Brett Winters (Sr.), distance freestyle; Greg Wheeler (Sr.), back.

KEY NEWCOMERS: Michael Liao (Fr.); Carter Taylor (So.), sprint freestyle; Brian Schiefer (So.), sprint free; Timmy Rolfes (Jr.); Kevin Liu (Jr.); Dane Johnston (Jr.); Kyle Murai (Jr.).

KEY DATES: at home against Beckman, March 21; at home against Irvine, April 4; at University, April 18.

OUTLOOK: The Pacific Coast League will boast two very formidable opponents for the Sea Kings in University and Irvine, which O’Dea said are probably the two favorites in league.

“Hopefully we can compete and put our nose in there somewhere,” O’Dea said.

CdM does boast an experienced lineup, and many of the top swimmers also play water polo together. A notable exception is Yamashita, who was fifth in the Division II finals of the 200-yard freestyle last season and sixth in the 500 freestyle.

O’Dea said he looks at another junior, Chris Cottrell, as a versatile guy who can swim the freestyle, backstroke and IM events.