Szabo: CdM swimming preps for Uni showdown

The Marian Bergeson Aquatics Center at Corona del Mar High hosted some world-class water polo last week with the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament.

Those looking for a high-level high school swim meet can return to the CdM pool deck on Wednesday.

Fresh off spring break, CdM will play host to University in a Pacific Coast League showdown.

The meet promises to be especially interesting on the boys’ side, where both the Sea Kings and Trojans enter with a 2-0 league record. University is ranked No. 1 in Orange County by the Register, with CdM right behind at No. 2.

The Sea Kings boys are led by club swimmers like Princeton-bound senior Tyler Lin, Northwestern-bound senior Justin Hanson, Boston College-bound senior Taylor Cortens and junior Tim Hanson.

Defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion University lost a top swimmer in graduate Corey Okubo but remains dangerous. The Trojans won the Millikan Southern Section Relays on March 23, while short-handed CdM, missing Lin and Tim Hanson, was third.

The teams have a common opponent in Loyola of Los Angeles, last year’s Division 1 runner-up. Loyola beat University, 90-80, in a dual meet March 10 and also beat CdM, 102-68, in a double dual meet March 26 that also included Capistrano Valley.

University’s boys have won three straight Pacific Coast League titles. CdM alumnus Tom Norton resigned as head coach following last season and Newport Harbor alumnus Kevin Potter is now the Trojans boys’ head coach.

On the girls’ side, CdM appears favored to improve to 3-0 in league. Coach Doug Volding believes his team has already survived its two toughest dual meet challenges in league, defeating Irvine, 90-80, on March 25 and edging Woodbridge, 88-82, on April 1.

CdM is led by Harvard-bound senior Meagan Popp and freshman Eva Merrell. Merrell already has set school records in the 100-yard freestyle (50.44 seconds), butterfly (54.07) and backstroke (56.02) in the first month of the season.

Popp, meanwhile, owns the school records in the 200 free and 500 free. But she also is close to one of the oldest school records on the books, Stephanie Gabert’s 2006 time of 2:03.40 in the 200 individual medley. Popp swam a 2:03.84 in the win over Woodbridge.

Gabert, who graduated in 2007, is an assistant coach for CdM swimming.

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•Of the four Newport-Mesa high school softball programs, only Estancia High made a CIF Southern Section playoffs appearance in 2014, winning a wild-card game and advancing to the first round of the Division 5 playoffs before losing at Montebello Schurr.

The Eagles want to get back to the postseason, and that can happen with a strong finish in the Orange Coast League, where Estancia took third place last year.

Coach Carrie Lester’s Eagles (8-4) opens league again next week with a pair of key games. They play defending champion Calvary Chapel at TeWinkle Park on Tuesday, before playing host to cross-town rival Costa Mesa on Thursday.

Estancia has won nine straight games overall against the Mustangs since 2012, a run that includes six straight league games.

Junior outfielder Maya Van Den Heever, fresh off earning Orange Coast League MVP honors for girls’ basketball, leads the squad with a .472 batting average. Maya’s twin sister Nefertiti, along with junior Felicia Rios and freshman Kylie Shepard, are all hitting .421.

Costa Mesa (3-8) opens league by playing host to Laguna Beach on Tuesday.

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•The CdM girls’ lacrosse team has been practicing through spring break this week, as it also has a busy week next week.

The Sea Kings play Foothill on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Tustin High, return to Pacific Coast League action with a home game Wednesday against Irvine and play at Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay game Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

CdM (4-4), ranked No. 15 in Southern California by laxpower.com, will be an underdog against No. 2 Foothill (6-0). But the Sea Kings usually play the Knights tough. Last year CdM upset Foothill twice, beating the Knights 16-15 in a nonleague game before topping them, 12-11, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs. Foothill was the top-ranked team in the state coming into the nonleague game.

CdM Coach Aly Simons said practicing during spring break is a change from past seasons.

“We gave them all of ‘ski week’ off, but we’re practicing all of spring break,” Simons said. “Normally we split it, half and half.”

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•This weekend marks the end of the first season of the USA Water Polo National League, with a six-team championship tournament beginning Saturday at Acalanes High in Lafayette.

There are locals with Newport-Mesa ties playing in the tournament. Team USA White features former Corona del Mar High and current UC Irvine standout Kyle Trush, as well as former Newport Harbor standout Farrel South, who now plays at Cal.

USA Blue features former Newport Harbor and current Cal standout Luca Cupido, who now plays with the U.S. senior national team and was named the MVP of last weekend’s FINA Intercontinental Tournament.

The two-day tournament concludes with the championship game, Sunday at 3:30 p.m. All games will stream online at https://www.youtube.com/USAWP.