Sailors hone in on title

Melanie Neff

All that stood between Newport Harbor High’s boys swim team and a Sea

View League title was a breaststroker.

The Sailors fell just 7 1/2points shy of knocking Irvine out of

its ninth straight league crown in Friday’s finals at Newport Harbor

High.

The Sailors held a 458-415.5 lead heading into the breaststroke

event, but without any swimmers in the final, Irvine quickly pulled

ahead and held a 17.5-point lead going into the final event, the 400

freestyle relay.

“We need Irvine to [get disqualified],” Sailors Coach Jason Lynch

said before the final race. “It’s just too close.”

Newport got victories in both the championship and consolation

finals of the 400 relay, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Vaqueros

from taking another title.

Irvine finished with 523.5 points. Newport was second with 516,

followed by Foothill (372.5), Aliso Niguel (218), Woodbridge (186)

and Laguna Hills (179).

“We all feel great,” Newport’s Ross Sinclair said. “We went into

the prelims 63 points down. We made up 47 or something like that, and

today we almost did it. Everyone swam their best times and we are all

going to go to CIF. That’s pretty good considering we are all a bunch

of water polo players.”

Senior Andrew Cole, the only club swimmer for Newport, won the

team’s only individual titles, but several of his teammates posted

CIF Southern Section automatic qualifying times.

Cole, who swims for the Irvine Novaquatics, jumped out to an early

lead in the 200 individual medley and never faltered. He held of

Foothill’s Barron Benjamin in the final 25 yards to win the title in

1:59.11. Newport’s Brent Armstrong recorded a consideration time,

finishing fifth in 2:08.00.

In the 100 backstroke, Cole blistered the field by more than four

seconds, in 54.05. Irvine’s Steve Simpson was second in 58.44. Both

title runs for Cole were automatic times. Armstrong earned

consideration with a third-place time of 58.89.

Cole also helped lead the 400 and 200 free relays, which both won

titles and qualified for the prelims Wednesday at Belmont Plaza.

Nathan Weiner, Sean McGhie and Michael Bury joined Cole on the 200

team that won the title in 1:29.70. Bury, Sinclair and Weiner rounded

out the 400 that won in 3:16.49.

Sinclair was all smiles after both of his races. He dropped almost

five seconds off his prelim time in the 200 free, taking second in

1:47.21 and automatically qualifying. Irvine’s Jason Kim won in

1:45.67. In the same race, Newport’s Bryan Auer and Clay Jorth both

posted consideration times with third- and fifth-place finishes,

respectively.

In a closely contested 500 free, Sinclair picked up another

automatic berth with a time of 4:53.32, dropping more than eight

seconds off his prelim time. Kim was first in 4:52.27, and Foothill’s

J.W. Krumpholz was second 4:53.27, just out-touching Sinclair. Jorth

and Andrew Belden earned consideration times in the race. Jorth

finished fifth in 5:00.00 and Belden was sixth in 5:00.34.

Weiner joined the automatic qualifiers with a second-place finish

in the 100 free in a time of 48.97. He led Aliso Niguel’s Austin

Luther heading into the final lap, but Luther edged out the victory

in 48.82.

“I thought I had him,” Weiner said. “I felt better on my last lap

than on my third, but I’m happy with how I did.”

In the 50 free, McGhie took second place behind Luther in 22.43, a

consideration time. Bury was third in the 100 fly in 56.18, also a

consideration effort.