Swimming: Spartans taking time to sharpen skills
Doesn't our Keith Birmingham take awesome photos? Click here for photos he took from last year's CIF Division II Swimming Finals.
The La Canada High School swimming program, and every other team in the area, is biding its time.
"We've backloaded our schedule," Spartans boys coach Art Lopez said. "Our bigger meets are near the end of the season. That's when we face Oaks Christian, San Marino and go to (the) Palm Springs (meet)."
In the meantime, the Spartans, 1-0 in the Rio Hondo League, will take a week off for spring break, and train.
"We'll work on their stroke, swimming philosophy and making sure they hit the walls right," Lopez said.
The Spartans boys have made 12 qualification marks for the CIF-Southern Section preliminaries. Among the top swimmers have been Alex Campbell in the 100 backstroke and the freestyle events, Chris Myers and Jeff Renfro in the freestyles and freshman Shane Chung in the 100 breaststroke and 100 butterfly.
The Spartans girls team has reached eight CIF-SS standards.
"We have a really good group of girls," coach Steve Silversparre said.
Freshman Katie Campbell has made an impact in the distance events. Sarah Olsen (sprints, fly), sophomore Mackenzie Heaton (breast, frees), Baret Kaesler (sprints) and Rachel Ku (back) have also stood out.
Tough schedule
How important are nonleague dual meets? Well, for La Salle, they are important because of strength of programs.
"Our record isn't great, but we've been going against tougher competition," coach Stephen Aguayo said.
The Lancers have faced San Marino, Temple City and Monrovia from the Rio Hondo League and Pasadena Poly from the Prep League.
"It definitely helps," Aguayo said. "It's an opportunity to go against stronger swimmers. We've done a good job and improved our times."
In its first Camino Real League cluster meet, it split with St. Joseph's, winning the boys and losing in girls. The next cluster meet is April 25.
Seven swimmers have made CIF-SS qualifying marks. Andrew Barman is leading the way.
The sophomore, whom Aguayo calls his anchor swimmer, has qualified in the breast, 500 free and the free relays. Sophomore Ricky Deneen is the leader in the 200 free and fly and senior Brian McSweeney leads in sprints.
Sophomore Dani Barrero is one of the Lancers' top swimmers in the 100 free and back and freshman Arolyn Basham leads the way in the breast and fly.
"We definitely have a good group of younger swimmers," Aguayo said. "They just need to stick to it."
Building a program
First-year Monrovia coach Jan Lopez said it is just going to take time to build the numbers.
The Wildcats have fewer than 20 swimmers on their combined boys and girls varsity teams. That means a lot of doubling and tripling up for each swimmer.
"It is what it is, but we're hoping to build," she said. "I want to keep the junior varsity swimmers where they are right now."
No swimmer has yet to reach a CIF-SS standard, but Lopez is hopeful that sophomore Ruben Carrillo will be able to make it later this season. He was within one-tenth of a second last season. He swims the fly and 200 individual medley. Lopez is hopeful that the girls 200 and 400 free relay teams will be fast enough to earn berths, too.
"We have a lot of pretty young kids," she said. "How good will they get? I won't know until the end of the year."
keith.lair@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 4456
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
I saw this on another post and it made me smile
If you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?
Re "Poly has a great team as does MHS, I wonder if the area has any teams with a shot at CIF Title,"
There are a few area swimmers with a shot at an individual CIF title, but I doubt any one area team has enough depth to win a CIF team title. The best area swimmers are spread out among several different schools, FSHA moved up to D.1, Keppel moved up to D. III and lost some key swimmers to graduation as did LCHS. Since each athlete can only compete in two individual events and two relays, a team needs several strong swimmers to win a team title. But who really knows until they hit the pool - may be a local school will surprise and win as a team.
Nicely written, I look forward to seeing how the season rolls out. Poly has a great team as does MHS, I wonder if the area has any teams with a shot at CIF Title.
The Pasadena area is loaded with dedicated, talented swimmers and it's nice to see them get some press attention. Thanks Star News.
Good luck to all the area swimmers the rest of the season and at the CIF divisional championships and masters meet in May.