DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Yutaro Yamashita was never one of those kids who tried every sport growing up, seeing which one would stick.

Ever since he started swimming at 3 years old in Japan, Yamashita has been strictly a swimmer. And it never gets old for the Corona del Mar High senior, the thrill of competing against someone just a lane over before reaching out for the wall.

The competitiveness Yamashita shows also lends itself to CdM relay teams, where he’ll often swim the anchor leg.

“I like being the anchor,” he said. “I can jump in and catch up and beat people.”

Yamashita usually wins such competitions. The Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week was perfect for the Sea Kings in a key Pacific Coast League dual meet against University on March 26. He won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 43.27 seconds, easily a CIF Southern Section Division I automatic time. He won the 100 butterfly in 52.12 seconds, another automatic time by over a second.

And Yamashita was a part of two winning relays. In the meet-ending 400 free relay, he teamed with John Kim, Carter Taylor and Michael Liao to win in 3:18.55. Yamashita’s anchor-leg time was a blistering 47.53 seconds.

Throwing Yamashita’s times into the equation makes it easy to see why Corona del Mar boys’ coach Barry O’Dea called Yamashita the Sea Kings’ best swimmer since O’Dea took over the program three years ago.

“I think he really wants to do well his senior year, and he’s been doing that,” O’Dea said. “He swims his rear end off. He’s really competitive. I’m a pretty competitive person, and seeing someone work as hard as he does is really cool.”

Yamashita set the Sea Kings’ team record in the 100 fly last May at the Pacific Coast League finals, swimming a personal-best and league-meet record time of 51.02. The time bettered Jeff Thomason’s previous mark of 52.00 set in 1986, helping CdM win league for the first time in 12 years.

The Arizona State-bound Yamashita also swims with the Irvine Novaquatics club team, as he has ever since moving from Japan with his mother, father and older sister Erika six years ago. He practices solely with Novaquatics, every afternoon and Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, popping in for the CdM boys on meet days.

“He’s got that edge,” O’Dea said. “He doesn’t want to lose. He swims for a good club in Nova, and basically I reap the benefits.”

Yamashita’s swim sets at Nova consist of 4,000 meters (long course) in the morning and 6,500 yards in the afternoons, he said. In total, that’s slightly over six miles that Yamashita may swim in a day. But he said he doesn’t mind.

“In Japan, the practice is always hard,” Yamashita said. “Here, we’re having fun during practice, and I have a good relationship with the coach and teammates.”

It was with the club team that Yamashita went to Florida last month for the National Club Swimming Assn. Junior Nationals meet. He swam four events, finishing a best of 14th in the 200 fly.

Yamashita’s high school times against University last week were fast, but he’s already bettering them. In the Sea Kings’ loss at Irvine on Wednesday, he swam a 1:42.29 in the 200 free and a 51.38 in the 100 fly. The times were second and first, respectively, as Yamashita battled with Irvine senior Rikiya Yano in both events.

“We’re friends, and I knew he was going to be fast,” Yamashita said. “I knew it was going to be a close race. Pushing each other makes us go faster. I surprised myself [with the times].”

But don’t be surprised if Yamashita is near the top at the CIF Southern Section Division I championships. Last year, he placed fourth in the 100 fly, in 51.07 seconds. He said his goal by the end of the year is to go under 50 seconds in the event.

Last year, Esperanza senior Collin Gladys won the event in 49.61 seconds, so a time under 50 could put Yamashita in the title hunt.

O’Dea knows that it’s best not to count out the swimmer known by his teammates as simply “Shita.”

“I could probably put him in the 100 free and he’d be top five,” O’Dea said. “He’s going to pretty much have his choice of what he wants to swim at CIF.”

Yamashita said he’s still trying to decide what he wants to swim at league finals. The butterfly is a definite event, but he’s going back and forth between the 200 free or 500 free. He said he believes he could go under 4:36 in the 500 free, which would set another school record.

“There’s two fast people [in league] in the 500,” he said. “If I swim the 500, I can get the record but I’m not going to win. It’s kind of a hard choice, breaking a record or winning.”

That’s called a win-win situation, which aptly describes Yamashita and the Sea Kings this year.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].