Swimming wrap party
Let's shake the notebook from the CIF-SS Masters Swimming Championships in Long Beach on Tuesday and see what falls out:
In the 50-yard free, the usual suspects finished at the top. Joey Hale (Redlands) and Karl Krug (Yucaipa) were 1-2, with Yucaipa's Michael Perry a respectable fifth.
Karl Krug Sr. said the kids were "torn up" from all the swimming recently, plus extra-curricular activities, like the prom. That's not to mention some celebrating Friday night after winning the school's first CIF-SS Division I title.
"I stayed up late, until 1:30 p.m.," Perry said. "When I woke up I thought 'We're Division I champs. Cool.' But it wasn't a day off. We had to go to practice."
The Masters Meet was just four days away.
At pool-side the Prep-dog spotted Lori Johnson, mother of Thunderbird swim star Clint Johnson. Lori was wearing a YHS swim T-shirt.
"Watching them win CIF was extremely exciting," she said. "It hasn't really sunk in, but our banquet is (coming up), so by then it should."
Lori said her son wants that CIF-SS championship ring - usually paid for at least in part by the booster club - worse than a class ring or a letterman's jacket.
Then big Steve Johnson, father of Clint and husband of Lori, ambled by. He is 6-foot-8 and I had to crane my neck upward to peer into his face. Steve, the former Redlands High and collegiate basketball player, told me of his inspirational speech to Clint at the CIF-SS finals.
"I told him 'This is your one chance. You gotta do it,'" Steve said. "To see them pull through was exciting."
I thought Michael Perry might be done energy-wise. He had a fifth in the 50 and nobody expected him to win the 100 ... until he did it. Perry touched the wall in 45.61, ahead of the second-place Hale (45.79), Redlands' Tyler Harp (45.98) and Krug (46.64).
Perry needed to cool down afterward, but he managed a few comments.
"It feels good," he said. "Really good. It was cool. I never thought I'd beat those guys."
Shortly thereafter was the boys' 200 free relay. Yucaipa won it in 1:23.90 with Trevor Hoyt, Johnson, Perry and Krug dominating. But I wanted to speak to somebody from Alta Loma to give our peeps west of the I-15 something to read.
That's when I found Chris Borcherdt, a senior in only his second year on varsity. He told me of his plans to join the Marines, as well as pointing me toward Alta Loma coach Brian Herblin, who was coaching his final meet after 14 years - eight with Alta Loma, five with Ontario and one with Chaffey.
"For our kids to just make it here was exciting," Herblin said. "We don't have kids like Joey Hale. Our running joke was we just wanted to not DQ (get disqualified) in that relay race. We DQ'd the last two years. This time we wanted a legal finish."
The Braves finished 10th in the race in 1:28.84.
There are no team scores kept at Masters, but Yucaipa was clearly on a roll.
It capped the evening by winning the 400 free relay in 3:03.86. The team was Hoyt, Johnson, Perry and Krug.
The figurative cupboard won't be bare for Yucaipa next season, either. Hoyt and Johnson are back, while Redlands returns the Brown brothers, freshman Nolan Brown and junior Austin Brown.
So it could be another battle between Redlands and Yucaipa for the 2009 Citrus Belt League title. Hopefully I'll get to cover that dual meet.