Jackson propels Sailors

CORONA DEL MAR — Newport Harbor High senior Katie Jackson has had a ball against Back Bay rival Corona del Mar High this school year.

With, and without a ball.

After her Sailors swept two girls’ water polo meetings against CdM in 2009-10, Jackson had her best individual day of the swim season Tuesday to help the Tars prevail, 95-75, in a nonleague dual meet at the Sea Kings’ pool.

Jackson won the 100-yard butterfly with a lifetime-best clocking of 55.95 seconds. She also topped the field in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.90), the first time she has competed in the event this season, and contributed to Newport Harbor wins in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.

“Today was definitely the best day of my year so far,” said Jackson, who celebrated her individual success as well as that of her team.

“I’m really happy with the team win,” Jackson said. “We’re really not a great swim team. We’ve always been defined as a water polo team. So, to beat our rival in swimming and in water polo is definitely something to smile about.”

Jackson was elated to break one minute for the first time in the fly.

“Any time you break a personal record, it’s really, really exciting,” Jackson said. “My previous best was 1:00.01 last year in CIF.”

Jackson said the adrenaline generated by the crosstown showdown may have been the difference in her sub-one-minute breakthrough.

“I really think it was the Newport-CdM rivalry,” she said. “But also, we’ve been training really hard this week and we lost to Los Alamitos on Tuesday. I think the loss was a big contributing factor to making us all want to do really well this meet. We didn’t want to lose again.”

Newport Harbor Coach Brian Malestrom said Jackson’s two victories were both unexpected.

“For her to win the breaststroke the first time she competed in the event in her career was pretty impressive,” Malestrom said. “Our top breaststroker [Stephanie VanValkenburgh] is out with a hip injury and we were swept in the event against Los Al. I decided to throw Katie in there because she is good at everything, and she just stepped up.”

Newport Harbor senior Kate Klippert also stepped up, winning the 50 free (25.45) and the 100 free (54.92) and anchoring the 400 free relay.

Freshman Casey Duckworth earned wins for the Sailors in the 200 individual medley (2:11.88) and the 500 free (5:08.65), while sophomore Madison McLaren (200 free in 1:57.65) and junior Catherine Carpenter (100 backstroke in 1:03.86) also posted wins for the visitors.

Sophomore Pippa Saunders (100 breaststroke and 200 IM), sophomore Natalie Wong (200 and 500 free) and freshman Brynne Wong (50 free and 100 fly) posted a pair of second-place finishes to highlight CdM performers.