Yucaipa High School boys declared 2008 national swimming champions

The 1987 Fontana mythical national championship football team has some more company.

The 2008 Yucaipa boys swimming team this month was named national champions by Swimming World Magazine.

The Thunderbirds - led by Karl Krug, Clint Johnson, Michael Perry and Trevor Hoyt - won the school's first CIF-Southern Section Division I title last spring. Other key team members were Spencer Harrison, Brian Haney and William Hearon.

Their recent designation by Swimming World Magazine as '08 national champs is an unexpected bonus.

"It's great," Yucaipa assistant coach Glen Perry said. "We want to thank all the club coaches. These kids only swim with us for a few months out of the year, so the club coaches deserve a lot of credit."

Yucaipa's mythical title is thought to be one of the few in county history by any school - with Fontana's football title in '87 being the most noteworthy.

The 1993 Eisenhower football team went 14-0 and defeated Santa Ana Mater Dei 56-3 in the CIF-SS title game, but was ranked second in the nation behind Cleveland St. Ignatius.

However, the T'birds' title is only the second mythical national championship in school history. Yucaipa, led by star runner Kimi Welsh, earned the national title in girls cross country in 1997.

"Our high school has always been strong in baseball," Krug told the magazine. "But our swimming program has never been this strong. It's an honor to bring home a national championship since we've only had one, and that was the (girls cross country) team."

The magazine ran pictures of the Yucaipa team after winning the CIF-SS title, as well as one of Krug.

The '08 Yucaipa swimmers edged Chesterton (Ind.) High School 116.5 to 114, according to the magazine's point system for ranking schools. The schools finished 1-2 in both the public school an combined rankings.

Yucaipa's Citrus Belt League rival Redlands, led by Joey Hale, was ranked fifth by the magazine in the nation among public schools and all schools combined. Hale was a teammte of Krug's on the Redlands Swim (club) Team.

Baylor School of Chattanooga, Tenn. ranked first among independent schools with 92.5 points. Westlake Village Oaks Christian was second with 58 points.

Krug, now on scholarship at Auburn University, was one of three All-Americans on the Yucaipa roster. The others were Perry and Hoyt. Perry is now at Concordia University in Irvine. Hoyt is a senior.

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