Advertisement

Costa Mesa continues to swim past Estancia

Share

COSTA MESA — Costa Mesa High’s Orange Coast League swimming dual meet began a half hour early on Wednesday. The timing wasn’t an inconvenience for the Mustangs. They traveled just across town to compete at rival Estancia.

The Mustangs accommodated the Eagles and with good reason. Estancia boys’ coach John Carpenter said he and many of the school’s swimmers planned to attend a funeral after the meet. The meet ended in time for them to do so.

The start time didn’t affect the results between the two schools in the pool. They have remained the same since the inception of the Orange Coast League six years ago.

Advertisement

The Costa Mesa boys’ and girls’ teams continue to beat the Eagles. Costa Mesa won the boys’ meet, 129-33, and the girls’ meet, 89-78.

While the girls’ meet was tight, the Costa Mesa’s boys swam away from the competition. The Mustangs won every event and Coach Justin Taylor said 29 of them had personal-best times.

The performances are promising with the league preliminaries set for Tuesday at Costa Mesa at 2 p.m. Both the Costa Mesa boys and girls enter the prelims in second place in league, behind Laguna Beach.

Costa Mesa’s boys and girls each finished 4-1 in league dual meets. The boys are likely headed for their fifth straight runner-up finish in league and the girls their sixth straight second-place finish.

The Mustangs keep finishing behind the Breakers. One team they haven’t finished second to in quite some time is Estancia.

The last time the Eagles topped the Mustangs in a girls’ dual meet was in 2005, when the teams swam in the Golden West League. Taylor said the Costa Mesa’s boys have defeated Estancia in each of the past 12 seasons.

Helping the Costa Mesa boys keep Estancia winless on Wednesday was Tyler Connors and Mason Cooper, who won two individual events apiece and were part of the winning 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams.

Connors, who usually swims the 100 backstroke, decided to skip the race. He wanted to qualify for CIF in the 100 butterfly and he produced a consideration mark of 59.52 seconds.

“He had a good time,” Taylor said, “but he will swim the 200 IM and the 100 backstroke.”

Connors also turned in a time of 2:07.91 in winning the 200 individual medley.

Cooper claimed the 100 free in 51.40 and the 50 free in 23.17. Both are CIF consideration times.

Other Costa Mesa first-place finishers included Reuben Vu (100 backstroke in 1:03.22), Nick Lewis (100 breaststroke in 1:10.27) and Andrew Palacios (200 free in 2:03.04).

Chris DeFrenza placed second in the 100 backstroke (1:11.62) and third in the 200 IM (2:36.8) for Estancia (0-11, 0-5 in league).

The Costa Mesa girls were led by senior Kellie Thorsness, who won the 50 free (25.45) and 100 free (56.45), and anchored the 200 and 400 free relay teams to victories.

Costa Mesa’s Aubry Hill also won two individual events, the 100 butterfly (1:09.14) and the 500 free (6:13.44).

Lauren Smith finished first in the 200 free (2:06.79) and second in the 100 free (58.47) for the Mustangs.

Estancia’s Brandi White won the 200 IM in 2:32.82.

“We’re looking forward to the league prelims,” said Tim Postiff, the girls’ coach at Costa Mesa. “Laguna Beach is definitely the team to beat.”

Advertisement