High School Swimming: CdM sweeps Battle
Coming off a big Pacific Coast League win at Northwood on Wednesday, the Corona del Mar High boys’ and girls’ swim teams did not have much time to recuperate.
A new day brought a new challenge. The Sea Kings traveled to Newport Harbor on Thursday for the annual Battle of the Bay rivalry meet.
CdM boys’ coach Barry O’Dea admitted that his student-athletes were tired.
“But they’re using the little things we’ve been working on in practice to get themselves in the right position to still get a decent time, being a little tired,” O’Dea said. “That’s the kind of stuff I was looking for today ... I thought they did that for the most part.”
O’Dea had little reason to complain. Neither did CdM girls’ coach Doug Volding, who scratched both his “A” and “B” 400-yard freestyle relay quartets at the end of the meet with CdM up big.
The CdM boys won the Battle of the Bay for the eighth straight year, 109-61. The girls were also victorious, 93-71, for the fourth straight year.
Senior Justin Hanson was a leader for CdM, winning the 200 individual medley in 1:52.92, as well as the 100 butterfly in 50.85 seconds. Hanson also swam on CdM’s winning medley relay, as he, Ethan Archer, Tyler Lin and Ashton Jajonie touched in 1:38.25.
“It’s always fun to win Battle of the Bay, obviously,” said the Northwestern-bound Hanson. “It’s nice to come to Newport Harbor and come away with a win in the last dual meet of my high school career.”
Jajonie (50 free, 21.91), Tim Hanson (500 free, 4:40.17), Taylor Cortens (100 back, 54.10) and Tyler Lin (100 breast, 57.89) were other individual winners for the CdM boys. The Sea Kings are gearing up for the Pacific Coast League meet next week at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center, with finals on Friday.
Newport Harbor’s boys also hope for a strong showing at Sunset League finals at Golden West College. They come into league finals fourth in league with a 3-2 dual meet record, yet the league appears even this season. Every team had at least one loss in dual meets.
“I feel like this year we’re not doing as well as we hoped, but I feel like once league comes around and is tapered, has their fast suit and everything, we’re going to be competing for first in league,” Newport senior Hayden Hemmens said. “This year is going to be the closest competition for league in a long time. Edison is usually way ahead, and we were close at the dual meet, and Los Al beat them. And we beat Los Al. It’s going to be an interesting league [finals], between the four of us.”
Hemmens, who will swim at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, won the 200 freestyle Thursday in 1:42.36. His Sailors teammate Dominik Folkner, who also is Cal Poly bound, was the Sailors’ other individual event winner by taking the 100 free in 46.70.
Newport Harbor also won both freestyle relays. Folkner, Jack Mooers, Jason Trzeciecki and Hemmens touched first in the 200 free relay (1:27.74), while Hemmens, Trzeciecki, Sawyer Farmer and Folkner won the 400 free relay in 3:10.21.
CdM’s girls, meanwhile, have not lost a dual meet in the last two years. They were 5-0 in league this year. Coach Doug Volding said he’s proud of that fact, yet he also knows that league finals will be challenging. The Sea Kings edged Irvine by 10 points and Woodbridge by six in league dual meets.
Thursday’s meet was not quite as close. Harvard-bound senior Meagan Popp won twice for CdM in back-to-back events, winning the 200 free in 1:54.28 and the 200 IM in 2:06.58. Freshman phenom Eva Merrell also won twice, capturing the 100 butterfly in 55.06 and the 100 back in 56.65.
So did CdM’s other prominent club swimmer, Nicole Lin, who took the 50 free (25.20) and the 100 breast (1:09.50). She also led off the winning medley relay, as Lin, Popp, Merrell and Sami Pratt won in 1:50.60. Eliza Britt won the 100 free in 58.41.
Yet, Newport Harbor’s girls also showed promise. And Coach Brian Melstrom said senior Carlee Kapana, one of his most talented swimmers who is currently competing in New Zealand with the U.S. women’s senior national water polo team, will be back next week for league finals.
The Sailors girls, who were 2-3 in league dual meets, won both freestyle relays. Melinda “Dinny” Stevens, Morganne Goodson, Kate Pipkin and Natalie Molstad touched first in the 200 free relay in 1:44.36, while Kate Yasko, Quincy Morgan, Jessica Lynch and Sarah Henry won the 400 free relay in 3:55.45.
Stevens and Henry are talented freshmen club swimmers for Harbor. Stevens was Newport’s lone individual event winner, taking the 500 free in 5:09.92, a personal-best by three seconds. The finish caused her mother, Shawna, to jump up from her timing duties and pump her first.
Dinny Stevens was also second to Popp, who is her club teammate at NOVA, in the 200 free. Newport Coach Brian Melstrom said Stevens also had personal-best splits in both of her relay events Wednesday.
Stevens, the younger sister of former Newport boys’ water polo player Dan Stevens (now at Harvard), looks forward to a bright future.
“It’s definitely really exciting, and we have some great incoming freshman [next year],” Dinny Stevens said. “Our relays are going to be great, and I’m really looking forward to the next three years.”
