Capo Valley Relays this weekend
The Capistrano Valley Relays are this weekend, a fun early-season boys’ and girls’ swim meet that a pair of Back Bay rivals will be attending.
Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor will both be at the meet, which began Thursday with girls’ prelims and continues Friday with boys’ prelims at Capo Valley High. The finals are scheduled for Saturday, beginning at 2 p.m.
Edison’s boys’ and girls’ teams also will be at the Capo Valley Relays.
Corona del Mar has one of its two head coaches back from last season. Doug Volding, the longtime girls’ swim coach at CdM, is also coaching the boys this season. Barry O’Dea is out on leave to care for his father. O’Dea is not teaching at CdM this year, although he did coach boys’ water polo in the fall.
CdM’s boys won the Capo Valley Relays in 2015 and have been strong in recent years. They finished eighth in CIF Southern Section Division 1 last year.
“The boys look to be strong again,” Volding said in an email. “Where the girls have had one club swimmer for two years, the boys I believe have had seven or eight. I’m still getting to know them and all the polo boys.”
Senior Ethan Archer is a strong club swimmer for CdM, which also has water polo players like fellow seniors Tamir Avital, Nick Britt, TJ Morton, Will Rodosky and Will Ueberroth projected for the varsity roster.
The CdM girls’ team is “still struggling,” Volding said. Eva Merrell, who starred at CdM as a freshman before taking last year off to prepare for the U.S. Olympic Trials, transferred to Crean Lutheran last summer. The top two swimmers in the program will likely be senior Nicole Lin and freshman Leora Rose, Volding said.
However, Volding said CdM will be missing 10 varsity girls’ swimmers on Saturday due to Olympic Development Program water polo, and Lin will also miss the meet.
“The lineup will look like a JV lineup, but that’s the way it is,” Volding said.
Newport Harbor’s girls team, led by the returning sophomore Spitz twins of Ayla and Zoe, looks to impress on Saturday. Junior Dinny Stevens and freshman Carly Yasko are other top club swimmers for the Sailors girls.
Lots of travel for Harris family
Tracy Harris of Huntington Beach, the mother of Oilers senior goalie Rachel Harris, has certainly spent a lot of time in San Diego lately.
Rachel is playing both girls’ soccer and basketball this winter. The Harris clan was in the San Diego area on both Tuesday and Wednesday, as the Oilers beat Torrey Pines and Poway, respectively, to advance in the CIF State Southern California Regionals in both sports.
Tracy also spent last weekend in San Diego, but that was for tennis. She was the team captain for the Los Caballeros 5.0+ team, which won the USTA sectionals tournament at Barnes Tennis Center.
On Thursday, Tracy had an even longer trip. She traveled to Fresno to watch Rachel and the Oilers play at Bullard in the SoCal Regional Division 1 girls’ soccer semifinals.
Big week for CdM boys’ tennis
The Corona del Mar High boys’ tennis team has earned a 4-0 start to the season, including Tuesday’s 14-4 win over Fountain Valley and Wednesday’s 12-6 triumph over Dana Hills. Sophomore Kyle Pham swept in singles in both matches.
Next week will likely be tougher. The Sea Kings play three home matches, against Los Alamitos on Tuesday, Santa Margarita on Wednesday and defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion Peninsula on Thursday.
The first Division 1 polls for this season have not come out, but CdM Coach Jamie Gresh said Los Al could be ranked somewhere from No. 4 to No. 6 in Division 1. He sees the Sea Kings as possibly somewhere in the 7-10 range.
“But [I’m] not totally sure and I never want to oversell my team,” Gresh said in a text message. “We will know how good we are after the Los Al match, for sure.”
Twitter: @mjszabo
