Boys and girls swim: Battle out of the water

Steve Virgen

NEWPORT BEACH -The clash between Newport Harbor High and Irvine

turned out to be more of a war of words than the swimming showdown

between the Sea View League and Orange County elite.

Most of the shots fired came from Irvine Coach Ken Dory, Wednesday,

when his boys team won, 126-39, at Heritage Park.

The Vaqueros girls squad, top-ranked in Orange County, was also

victorious, 118-57, over Newport Harbor, ranked No. 2 in the county.

“I have a problem with them not being able to swim when they can,”

said Dory, in his 13th year at Irvine, which is ranked No. 1 in county

boys poll this season. “I think it’s ridiculous.”

The Sailors boys team, ranked third in the county, did not compete at

full strength as they were without five seniors, six swimmers who had to

attend an academic field trip and two club swimmers, juniors Aaron

Peirsol and Ryan Lean, who are preparing for the U.S. Nationals/World

Championship Trials.

“The seniors and the club swimmers wouldn’t get anything out of this

meet,” Harbor Coach Brian Kreutzkamp said. “The young guys get

experience, (this meet serves) absolutely nothing else (for Harbor).”

Harbor sophomore Charles Hockenbury was the only Sailor swimmer to

finish in the top three in any event when he finished third in the

100-yard butterfly (1:11.74). The Sailors also won the 100 freestyle

relay, but they swam uncontested as Dory said he wanted to send a message

by not competing in the meet’s final event.

“If I knew Newport wasn’t even going to try, I’d rather just forfeit,”

Dory said. “I’d rather have taken the loss, train my guys and be out of

here at 4 p.m. instead of 6:30,”

“It’s (like) a bad practice,” Dory said of the dual meet. “Kids aren’t

taking it seriously, there are false starts, there are weird things going

on, that’s a bad habit forming. I just as soon pack up our things and go

get dinner.”

The Sailors will attempt to answer Dory’s criticism at the Sea View

League Finals, where they will be at full strength. Kreutzkamp said the

seniors made a commitment with the club swimmers at the beginning of the

year to join the team when the Sea View League Finals take place May 4.

Said Dory, “I know Newport is not just missing their two club kids,

they’re missing seniors, that to me ... those kids should be off the

team. It depends on what program the coach wants to run. That’s not a

program I would want to run.”

Peirsol, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist in the 200 backstroke, was

actually in attendance at the dual meet. He and Lean were training with

the Novaquatics. Peirsol walked through toward the end of the meet to

chat with Kreutzkamp and others.

I’d be fine coming to these meets,” said Peirsol who leaves Monday for

the U.S. Nationals in Austin, Texas. “I wouldn’t have the same kind of

stress I usually have. And we would’ve done pretty well here if we had

our seniors. Brian (Kreutzkamp) is not putting the big stress on anybody.

CIF is the meet that it comes down to. Every meet builds up to that.”

Irvine Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo also spoke on the absence of his

club swimmers, Peirsol and Lean, at the dual meet.

“They’ve been in training since early September,” Salo said. “This

would just be a distraction for them. When these kids are getting ready

for college, their performance at the U.S. Nationals is much more

important that a high school dual meet.”

Meanwhile, the Harbor girls competed successfully in a few events.

Harbor junior Carly Geehr won the 200 individual medley (2:08.44) and the

500 freestyle (a CIF-qualifying 5:07.89).

Newport sophomore Mai Tajima won the 100 backstroke (1:01.40).

“We got a pretty good squad too,” Harbor Coach Ken LaMont said. “It’s

kind of humbling. But, we actually performed well today. (The Sailors)

realize that more work needs to be done, instead of relaxing on our

success.”