Sage takes strides

LONG BEACH ? The secret to success late in the swim season is knowing when to rest. Sage Hill School co-coaches and cousins Hazem Amr and Aleah Amr knew when to ride the breaks in their first year after going top speed in practice most of the season.

Right before the Academy League meet, the sprinters started to rest and the grueling pace of practice eased up. It paid off in the league meet as the boys and girls teams finished second and third respectively, the boys only six points out of first behind Whitney. It was an improvement from the previous season’s last-place finishes.

With confidence soaring, the Lightning stuck to the practice regimen and posted nine qualifiers for Thursday’s CIF Southern Section Division IV consolation finals. All 10 of Sage Hill’s swimmers at the prelims Monday at Belmont Plaza Pool advanced. Last season, no swimmer advanced to the second day.

The top eight in each event qualify for the finals, with the next eight advancing to the consolation round the same day.

“We broke every single school record this year, except for the girls backstroke,” Hazem Amr said. “The boys’ team is only losing one senior this year. We can win the league title next year.”

Rest periods late in the season helped Sage Hill shave seconds off their times. Practice today will only be a shell of what it was midway through the season.

“At the league finals, all of us dropped a couple seconds off our times,” senior Julian Tooma said. “This year, we have new coaches and we learned how to taper off at the end. We rested a lot during the end of the year.”

Sage Hill’s top two finishers were sophomore Sarah Wesley and senior Stephanie Roeser, finishing eighth and ninth in the 100-yard freestyle, respectively ? a tenth of a second from cracking the top eight. Wesley swam her heat in a time of 57.37 seconds and also advanced in the breaststroke. Roeser finished in 57.44.

Not only did the Lightning rest more at the end than last year, but Roeser said practices were more intense early on this season.

“The new coaches are more hardcore and intense,” said Roeser, who missed advancing in the individual medley by a quarter of a second. “It was better for us. We swim long sets and really fast.”

The boys’ team advanced in both the 200 and 400 relays with times of 1:36.08 and 3:33.13 respectively. Beau Caillouette was part of both teams and the sophomore said he foresees a bright future for Sage Hill.

“I thought we did really well,” Caillouette said. “We trained really hard and dropped a lot of time. We didn’t crack under the pressure. This team is just starting to develop.”

Sophomore Jimmy Millen qualified in the 500 freestyle, junior Perry Pang qualified in the 100 butterfly and freshman Nick Wan advanced in the 100 backstroke. All three were participating in their first CIF Southern Section meet.