Girls’ Player of the Week : Christy Carolin Takes Her Turn as First in the Family

The 50- and 100-yard freestyles have become a Carolin family event for the Capistrano Valley High School girls’ swim team.

Christy and Kim Carolin have dominated those two events during meets the last two years at Capistrano Valley. Last season as a freshman, Christy won the Southern Section 4-A championship in the 50, and her sister Kim, a sophomore, finished third.

“We’ve been competing against each other for years,” said Christy, The Times’ player of the week. “It’s been fun and most of the time it seems like we trade off winning.”

Last weekend it was Christy’s turn, winning both events in the Foothill Invitational. And she broke the meet record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.26 seconds during the preliminaries.

She finished the day by swimming a leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay, which set a meet record (3:39.43). Kim, who also was part of the relay team, finished third in the 100.

“It’s amazing to have two swimmers that are great in the same events,” Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Gaughran said. “It’s something that can really help us in the Southern Section meet. Most schools will be lucky to qualify one swimmer in those events, we’ll likely have two qualify in both.”

If it wasn’t for Kim, Christy might not have started swimming at all.

During the first year that Kim swam for the Irvine Novaquatics, Christy, then 8, would watch her workouts. During one of those practice sessions, the Novaquatics’ coach asked if she would like to join the team.

“He said it was a lot more fun swimming in the water than watching from the side,” Christy said. “I really wasn’t very competitive back then, but it looked like fun.”

The sisters have faced each other in the sprint events throughout most of their careers.

“I think it helps me train better,” Christy said. “We train together and are on the same teams. That will naturally make you more competitive. But, we also support each other.

“And, when we get home, that’s it. We’ll talk about anything except swimming.”

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Christy Carolin

Capistrano Valley High

Position: 50- and 100-yard freestyles

Height, Class: 5-6, Soph.

Last Week: Carolin won the 50- and 100-yard freestyles at the Foothill Invitational. She set a meet record in the 50-yard freestyle (24.26).

Season: Carolin has finished first or second in every high school meet this season. She also swam in the U.S. Shortcourse Senior Nationals in March.