Huntington Beach boys’ swimming enjoys the journey at Surf League finals
The Huntington Beach High boys’ swim team has built up an expectation to win in coach Ryan Camps’ decade in charge.
It wasn’t always that way. In his first two years as coach, the Oilers didn’t even win a dual meet.
But after a 3-0 record in an abbreviated pandemic year in 2020, Camps said that Huntington Beach has gone 10-0 in dual meets each of the last three seasons.
“Our seniors will leave Huntington never losing a dual meet in all four years,” he said. “It’s pretty rad … It’s kind of been a good culture shift.”
The two-time defending Wave League champions got promoted to the Surf League this year, and even beat powerhouse Los Alamitos in an away dual league meet on March 27.
The Griffins got a bit of revenge Friday at Golden West College in the Surf League finals.
Los Alamitos again swept both genders. The Los Al boys finished with 372 points, ahead of second-place Huntington Beach (312), third-place Fountain Valley (255) and fourth-place Corona del Mar (215).
The Los Alamitos girls dominated with 464 points. Fountain Valley (253 points) edged CdM (251) for second place, with Huntington Beach in fourth.
“We’ve got a lot of really solid guys,” Camps said. “We’ve been winning dual meets where we don’t win the races, we go second, third, fifth, or second, third, fourth. It’s sometimes tough to win championship meets [that way], but the kids are doing great … For me, it’s hard to be disappointed in the boys. Sure, we got a lot of sevenths and 13ths, but they’re all dropping time.”
Oilers senior Dylan Crane led the charge. He won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.76 seconds, and finished second in the 100 backstroke in 53.09.
The Huntington Beach boys also won the meet-opening 200 medley relay, as Luke Poturalski, Kyle Shih, Hudson Ruth and Crane touched in 1:34.60. They also got what Camps called a bit of a surprising win in the 200 free relay, with Andrew Bui, Jayden Leiva, Jake Shaffer and Crane touching first in 1:25.21.
Other local individual winners on the boys’ side included CdM junior Camren Simoncelli in the 100 free, and Fountain Valley freshman Peter Vu in the breaststroke.
There were three local double-event winners on the girls’ side. CdM senior Maggie Schalow won the 100 butterfly in 52.65, and the 500 free in 4:47.33.
In each race she swam in Lane 4, and was buoyed by a stellar CdM teammate swimming alongside — Alex Milisavljevic finished second in the 500 free and Taylor Park finished third in the butterfly.
“We really feed off each other,” said Schalow, who teamed with Milisavljevic, Park and Nikki Lahey to win the 200 free relay in 1:36.32. “We motivate each other, cheer each other on, and I think that’s why we swam so good today. I always had one of my teammates racing next to me, and we finished 1-2 in the 500. It was just a great race out of everyone.”
Lahey, a sophomore, was victorious in the 50 free and 100 free. She said the times of 23.88 and 52.26 are her bests.
She went out quick in the 100, which she said was part of the plan.
“I feel good going into CIF next week, winning those [races],” Lahey said. “I feel like I’ll be seeded good, maybe make it back to finals.”
Park won the 200 free, in 1:52.29.
Fountain Valley sophomore Kaitlyn Nguyen was the only local swimmer to win a CIF championship last year, in the breaststroke. She looks to cap off a strong second year of high school swimming.
Nguyen won the 200 IM in 2:01.76, and the breaststroke in 1:02.00, on Friday. But she found room for improvement. She said she’d like to improve her backstroke leg of the individual medley.
“I think I can go faster at CIF,” she said. “My first half [of the breaststroke] was a little iffy … I can’t let [winning CIF last year] get to my head that much, because I still have a lot to improve on.”
The CIF Southern Section Division 1 and 2 preliminaries will be Wednesday at Riverside City College, with a combined finals meet being held Friday at 3 p.m.
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