Sage Hill Aquatics Center to open Tuesday

Taras Polakoff is excited for the first truly home meet of his Sage Hill School swimming career.

Even if it’s also the last truly home meet.

The Lightning’s on-campus aquatics center is set to open Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m., followed by Sage’s last home meet of the season against Oxford Academy at 4 p.m.

There are other bonuses for Polakoff, a senior who recently signed with Babson College outside of Boston.

“It’s on my birthday, and that’s incredible,” Polakoff said. “It’s also the last home meet. I wish we had more home meets, but just having the ribbon-cutting on senior night … For me, it’s like a $10-million birthday present. It’s just crazy. I’m super-excited.”

The Sage Hill Aquatics Center is the second phase of a $13-million campaign that also brought the Brett Connor Jordan & Family Tennis Center to the Newport Coast campus last spring.

For the swimmers, it means no more going off-campus for meets and practices. The Lightning have held their meets at University High, and practices at Harbor View community pool at the undesirable times of 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Sage Hill’s boys, led by Polakoff and sophomore Jason Schreiber, are 3-0 in league as they go for their third straight Academy League title. Polakoff said he wants to set the school record in the 100-yard butterfly, which is currently a 53.87 set by Andrew Dorne in 2010. Polakoff was just two-hundredths of a second off that time last year at Academy League finals.

Polakoff, who owns Sage records in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 back, hopes to add that butterfly mark to his collection on Tuesday.

“I’m going to be trying to get that 100 fly record,” he said. “I know all of my teachers are going to be out there, and all my friends. They’ve never seen me swim … Jason and I are hoping to put on a little show for them.”

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will feature a deejay and food trucks, as well as special guests in the form of Olympic swimmers and water polo players. Aaron Peirsol, Brad Schumacher, Ryan Bailey and Kaitlin Sandeno-Hogan are all scheduled to attend, according to a press release.

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MARINA, SAGE HILL IMPRESS AT JSERRA INVITATIONAL

Sage Hill’s swim teams are no doubt excited about the new aquatics complex on campus, and they can also be excited with how well they’ve been competing this season.

The Sage boys placed third in the JSerra Invitational on Saturday, with the Sage girls in fifth place. JSerra won the meet in both genders.

Marina finished second in both the boys’ and girls’ competition. Vikings junior Gareth Svanda was a double-winner for the boys, taking the 100 fly (52.53 seconds) and 100 back (55.28).

For the Marina girls, sophomore Madeline Sandstead won the 100 fly in 1:01.93, and was second in the 200 free in 2:00.17.

Sage Hill’s Schreiber won the boys’ 200 IM (school-record 1:56.47) and 100 breast (1:00.31), while Polakoff set a school record in winning the 100 free in 49.24.

Sage Hill standout freshman girls’ swimmer Nicole Harvey won the 200 IM in 2:15.96, and the 100 breast in 1:09.70. Both of those were also school record times.

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CDM’S VOLDING TO RETIRE

Longtime Corona del Mar High girls’ swim coach Doug Volding will be retiring after this season, assistant coach Jennifer Bloomfield said.

His last home meet will be Wednesday against University. The next day, he will coach in his last Battle of the Bay meet, at rival Newport Harbor.

Volding is in his 31st year coaching the girls’ swim team, and this year he is also the boys’ head coach. He returned to coaching at CdM in 2012 following a three-year absence for health reasons.

Volding, a longtime counselor at CdM, coached the CdM girls to CIF Southern Section Division 2 titles in 2004 and 2006.

Those who have photos or memories to share, or want to help organize a tribute to Volding, can email Bloomfield at [email protected].

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