High School Swim: CdM’s Popp, Merrell put on a show

IRVINE — Corona del Mar High freshman Eva Merrell danced on the blocks and mouthed the words to the Taylor Swift song, “Blank Space.”

This might not seem to be the scene for a record-setting 400-yard freestyle relay. But Merrell and her teammates preferred to have fun as the music played at Friday’s Pacific Coast League swimming finals at Woollett Aquatics Center.

“I had to,” Merrell explained with a smile after the meet. “I felt it.”

It worked, as Meagan Popp, Nicole Lin, Kaybree Albright and Merrell won the race in a meet record of 3 minutes, 29.13 seconds.

“We wouldn’t have done it without Taylor Swift,” Popp said.

And, though the CdM girls could not repeat as league champions, they were able to shake it off and carve out plenty of fast swims. The Harvard-bound Popp and Merrell, who were co-Girls’ Swimmers of the Meet along with Daniela Georges of Woodbridge, led the way.

CdM’s girls, hurt by a poor preliminaries showing on Tuesday, finished third (370 points) behind Irvine (428) and Woodbridge (390) at league finals, despite being perfect in league dual meets. CdM’s boys finished with 400 points and were second behind University, which tallied 511 points and won its fourth straight league title.

The highlights were plentiful for Popp and Merrell, on both individual events and relays. They teamed with Lin and Sami Pratt to set the school record in the meet-opening medley relay in 1:45.31, an automatic All-American time.

Popp broke CdM assistant coach Stephanie Gabert’s 2006 school record in the 200 individual medley by more than two seconds, winning the race in 2:01.31, another All-American time. She also won the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.15, another All-American time.

“That was a really pleasant surprise,” Popp said of her IM performance. “I mean, I was going for [the record] for CIF, so it was kind of nice to get it out of the way at this meet. I just felt really good as soon as I dove in the water, so might as well go for it.”

Merrell won the 100 fly (53.35) and 100 back (54.38) in meet record and automatic All-American times, lowering her own school records in each event.

“My best time [in the fly] is a 53.7, so to get within a second of that for me was really surprising,” Merrell said. “I really wanted to go a 54, so I was really happy that I actually did it.”

Lin matched a season-best time in winning the 50 free in 24.21, and was fourth in the breast in 1:06.18. Albright was also stoked that she finished fifth in the 100 free in a season-best 55.19, then was able to split a 54.65 on the 400 free relay.

“I definitely was pretty nervous,” said Albright, a water polo player bound for Indiana University. “I knew I had to go 54 going in, but [my club swimming teammates] definitely calmed me down a little bit.”

CdM girls’ swim Coach Doug Volding said he could see his team placing as high as third at next week’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals. But the reason for the third-place finish at league finals was a poor preliminaries showing, caused at least partly by water polo.

CdM juniors Bridgett Storm and Heidi Ritner competed last weekend at a Olympic Development Program national selection camp for water polo. Storm said she trained for up to eight hours a day at the camp at Charter Oak High in West Covina, which ended Monday. League swimming preliminaries were Tuesday for the girls and Storm failed to make the championship finals in the 200 freestyle.

“I had just been working muscles that I hadn’t been working in a while, so I was kind of worn out,” said Storm, who did win the 200 free consolation final Friday and finish third in the 500 free (5:22.33). “Then the next day [Tuesday], we had the big meet. I was a mixture of sick, tired, and all of the above, you know? I was really bummed out, and I felt really bad, because we had done so well leading up to that meet.”

Still, CdM appears to be set up well for CIF.

“I mean, [the preliminaries showing] was disappointing at first, but then you realize that your team did the best they could do on that particular day,” Popp said. “That’s all you can ask for. I think we all came today with a positive attitude, knowing that all we had to do was just improve our times from Tuesday. I think pretty much everyone did that, so we were happy with our overall outcome.”

CdM had two individual league champions on the boys’ side. Senior Tyler Lin won the 100 breaststroke at league finals for the third straight year with an automatic All-American time of 55.65. It gives Lin, the defending CIF champion in the event, momentum going into CIF finals next week.

“My goal is to get the [CIF] record, obviously, but I’d be happy with a 54,” he said. “The record is 54.1 [set by Mission Viejo’s John Criste in 2007]. It’s definitely within reach. I told myself I had to go 55 here if I wanted to get it, and I went 55. That’s pretty sick.”

CdM boys’ Coach Barry O’Dea said Lin is undefeated in the breaststroke as a junior and senior.

Senior Justin Hanson won the 100 fly in 49.94. Lin and Hanson finished second and third, respectively, in the boys’ 200 IM, which also featured CdM’s Tim Hanson (sixth) and Taylor Cortens (seventh) in the championship final.

CdM’s Ethan Archer was second in the 100 back (51.53), and Tim Hanson was third in the 500 free (4:35.97).

O’Dea is also looking for a top-five finish at the Division 1 finals, but winning it could prove problematic.

“I still think Loyola and Uni have got a pretty big gap [on the rest of Division 1],” he said. “Today was a really good day for us. We had some good swims.”

CdM’s medley relay of Archer, Lin, Justin Hanson and Ashton Jajonie finished second to Uni in a season-best time of 1:34.32.