Irvine Girls Win Fifth Straight Section Relay Title

Irvine High continued its domination of the Millikan Southern Section swim relays Saturday night by capturing its fifth consecutive girls’ championship at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Two weeks earlier, the Irvine boys’ team won its third consecutive title.

Irvine won three of seven races and finished with 238 points, ahead of La Crescenta Crescenta Valley (198) and Santa Margarita (170), which fared well with victories in the 300-yard freestyle and 200 breaststroke relays.

Sixth-place Esperanza won the 400 freestyle relay and Glendora St. Lucy’s took the 200 butterfly.

Irvine has won three consecutive Southern Section titles but has graduated most of the swimmers from those teams. That’s why this victory was so gratifying, Coach Scott Hinman said.

“Five years ago we had a real solid group of freshmen that propelled us for the next four years and spirited us to three CIF championships,” he said. “This is a relatively new group and it’s a good start for them.”

Irvine won the first event, the 400 individual medley relay, in 4 minutes 8.39 seconds. Santa Margarita won the next two, the 300 freestyle and 200 breaststroke relay.

In both races, the Eagles kept pace with Irvine early before turning to freshman Erika Figge, whose 24.04 split for 50 yards in the 300 freestyle relay and a 30.69 50-yard anchor leg in the 200 breaststroke provided the winning margin.

“We knew we had a good chance of winning those races,” Figge said. “Our coach has real high expectations and so do we. There is pressure swimming anchor because you know you’ve got to bring it and you want to win it for the team.”

Glendora St. Lucy’s won the 200 butterfly (1:49.95), then Irvine won the 200 backstroke relay in 1:53.42.

Esperanza junior Jeannette Nieto overcame the field with a 52.94 anchor leg in the 200 freestyle as the Aztecs (3:39.65) held off Irvine (3:40.90).

“I was real, real happy with Jeannette,” Coach Nancy Thomas said. “She’s a wonderful swimmer, but the key point was that everyone swam their fastest times ever.”

The Vaqueros entered the final race, the 200 medley relay, 20 points ahead of their nearest competitor, and won in 1:53.45, three seconds faster than their qualifying time.

Irvine has only two seniors on its team, so Hinman is relying heavily on his younger swimmers, three of whom--Ashley Gore, Lisa Sciarani and Sarah Hamilton--recorded personal bests Saturday night.

“Our depth was the key,” Hinman said.

In the Sonora boys’ diving invitational:

Vincent wins--Ray Vincent of El Toro won the one-meter springboard with 587.70 points. Michale Hilde of Servite (556.55) finished second.

Lee Votaw of Fullerton finished third in the three-meter springboard (192.80), and Bob Wolfe of Edison finished fourth (174.30).

In the Sonora girls’ diving invitational:

Routsong wins--Rachelle Routsong of Santa Margarita easily won the three-meter springboard event, scoring 262.70 points to beat Kari Welch of Esperanza (213.35).

In the one-meter springboard, freshman Carrie Quinn of Laguna Hills won with a score of 465.75 points.