Corona del Mar's Boys Swimmers Top No. 1 Capistrano Valley

In all likelihood, the boys swim teams from Capistrano Valley, Corona del Mar and Loyola of Los Angeles will be competing against one another for the CIF Southern Section Divsion 1 championship next month at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

On Tuesday, the three teams gathered at Capistrano Valley High in what could be considered a preliminary, but in reality was a nonleague double-dual meet.

Capistrano Valley is the two-defending Division 1 champion, while Loyola finished runner-up in 2009 and 2010 and Corona del Mar was third last year. When the teams met earlier this season at the 40th annual Southern Section/Millikan relays, the Cougars again defended their title, followed by Loyola and the Sea Kings.

But all that was ancient history Tuesday, when Corona del Mar, ranked second in the county by the Orange County Register, upset No. 1 Capistrano Valley, 90-80. And Loyola easily handled both of its opponents, beating the Sea Kings, 104-66, and the Cougars, 105-65.

Corona del Mar was buoyed by strong performances by junior Jared Namba and senior Geon Woong Kim and support from some extremely fast relay times.

“I was happy with what we accomplished today,” Sea Kings coach Barry O’Dea said. “We got some amazing times in our relays and some great performances individually.”

The meet's first event helped set the stage for the excitement that would follow as Corona del Mar clocked a time of 1:36.40 in the 200-yard individual medley relay,  touching the wall in slightly more than one-10th of second faster than runner-up Loyola, whose swimmers touched at 1:36.52.

Both were All-American consideration times and the Sea Kings' time was the fastest turned in by an Orange County team this season this season.

“That was good way to start,” said junior Ari Marks, who swam the race's fastest
freestyle split (21.15). “I thought they hit the water before me but I didn’t see how close he was because I was so focused on just swimming fast.”

Kim also produced a blistering split (22.84) on the butterly leg that helped narrow the gap between Corona del Mar and the the Cubs.

Corona del Mar (1:26.85) also produced an All-American consideration time in the 200 free, finishing behind Loyola (1:26.71) by slightly more than one-10th of second. Teammates Matt Berry and Marks tied for the race's fastest splits in 21.37.

“I’m happy with that race,” Berry said. “This is our chance to race against the best and get ready for CIF.”

The Sea Kings finished ahead of the Cougars in seven of the 11 races. Kim won the 200 IM (1:54.95) and the 100 breaststroke, and Namba smoked the competition in the 100 backstroke with an All-American consideration time of 51.72. He also walked away from the pack in the 100 fly, winning by more than two seconds in 51.06.

“I felt good today,” Namba said. “Hopefully we can do a little better at CIF. All three teams are really good and are going to be tough to beat.”

Capistrano Valley junior Logan Redondo won the 200 free (1:42.80) and sophomore Spencer DeShon won the 500 free (4:38.31).

“We know there is a big target on our backs because of our history and the fact that we have been on top for the past three years,” Redondo said. “But this isn’t the meet that matters, that’s next month, but it sure does go a long way for building confidence.”

Although his team was on the losing end of both dual meet scores, Cougar coach Steve Yancy was optimistic about his team's chances in the CIF Championships.

“I think this meet showed that we aren’t as good as a dual meet team this season as maybe we were in the past,” Yancey said. “But we had guys swimming out of place in events they won’t swim in at CIF because we needed to fill spots. That won’t be a problem at CIF.”