SOUTHERN SECTION 2-A SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS : Meet Goes to Final Event; Laguna Hills Boys Just Miss

LONG BEACH —  All Rohan Taylor could do was sit down and sigh.

The Laguna Hills boys’ swim coach watched his team chase Walnut all afternoon during the Southern Section 2-A finals Saturday at Belmont Plaza pool. And what did it come down to?

“One more yard,” Taylor said, then sighed again. “One more yard.”

All the Hawks needed to claim their second title in three years was win the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. They didn’t, but it took a record-breaking performance to deny them the championship.

Dan Miles barely held off Chad Carvin at the finish, giving Walnut the title. The Mustangs finished with 211 points; Laguna Hills had 200.

Walnut won with a time of 3 minutes 8.42 seconds, a 2-A record. It was .29 seconds ahead of the Hawks.

“Our kids did everything possible today,” Taylor said. “We made it (the meet) a lot closer than it should have been. They should have killed us.”

Walnut, the defending champion, would have had a 24-point cushion, had everything gone the same as preliminaries.

But the Hawks refused to put up with the status quo. With exceptional performances by Carvin and Suichi Matsumoto, they closed the gap.

Carvin set two 2-A individual records. His time of 4:21.10 in the 500 freestyle broke his own record, set last year, and was the fastest in the nation in a high school meet this year. His time of 1:37.80 in the 200 freestyle broke Chad Hundeby’s (Woodbridge) record of 1:38.17, set in 1988.

Matsumoto set a 2-A record in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:51.16. He beat Miles, who had set the record (1:51.23) during last year’s final.

Laguna Hills also got points from freshmen Mark Kwok (sixth in the 200 IM) and Preston Hammertree (fifth in the 500 freestyle).

Going into the final event, the Hawks were within five points of first-place Walnut.

Walnut got off to a big lead in the 400 freestyle relay. At times, the lead stretched to two body lengths. But Carvin closed the gap and was within arm’s reach at the finish.

“It was amazing that it came down to that,” Taylor said.

In the girls’ competition, Walnut scored its second consecutive victory, finishing 81 points ahead of second-place Cerritos (181-100).

In an outstanding individual performance, Natasha Kohne of Rancho Alamitos joined an elite group by winning the 200 individual medley for the fourth consecutive year.

Only Janet Evans of El Dorado, (500 freestyle), Christy Carolin of Capistrano Valley (50 freestyle), Shannon Orcutt of Capistrano Valley (100 breaststroke) and Jill Sterkelof Hacienda Heights Wilson (100 freestyle) have swept a Southern Section meet event during their high school careers.

“I had no idea that there were so few,” Kohne said. “I really wasn’t expecting to do much this time because I took time off from swimming this year. I had been swimming nonstop for 13 years, it was time to take a break.”

Kohne played basketball for the Vaqueros during the winter.

The time off didn’t seem to hurt. Her time of 2:08.32 was nearly four seconds faster than the second-place finisher’s time. Kohne also finished second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.55.