Boys swimming: Peirsol ‘warms up’ with meet record

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - Sometimes Newport Harbor High sophomore boys

swimmer Aaron Peirsol even deceives Coach Brian Kreutzkamp.

In Wednesday’s Sea View League boys swimming preliminaries, Peirsol swam

a 51.15 in the 100-yard backstroke braking the old meet record time of

51.67, which he set last year.

“He didn’t even look like he was trying all that hard out there,”

Kreutzkamp said. “He’s just so smooth out there, it’s really scary.”

Peirsol also qualified second in the 200 individual with a 1:56.47.

According to Kreutzkamp, the school IM record, set by John Moffet

(1:51.33) in 1983, might be in jeopardy with a solid run at Friday’s

finals.

“He’ll be going for it on Friday,” Kreutzkamp said. “He’s very close

right now.”

Another double-qualifier is junior Peter Belden, who qualified first in

the 50 free (21.96) and third in the 100 free (49.57).

The Sailors and Irvine will be well represented in that 50 free race,

taking seven of the eight top spots. Joey Snelgrove (3rd, 22.49), Steve

Jendrusina (4th, 22.84) and Kyle Bean (8th, 23.15) will join Belden in

the race.

“I’m extremely happy with how we fared today,” Kreutzkamp said.

“Honestly, I don’t think we’re anywhere close to the depth Irvine has,

but we’ll have some very good times out there on Friday.”

Joining Belden in the 100 free will be Ryan Cook and Brenden Hansen. Cook

qualified fifth with a personal-best time of 50.34, while Hansen was

eighth at 51.26.

“The important thing is to be in the top eight and qualify for the

finals,” Kreutzkamp said. “We had some guys on the bubble who stepped up

and made the top eight, like Branden. That was nice to see.”

Another sophomore standout, Ryan Lean qualified second in the 500 free

(5:05.61) as well as the 200 free (1:50.96).

Also qualifying with Lean in the 500 was Brian Pentz, who was fifth at

5:20.10 and Greg Worthing, who was eighth at 5:27.87. Paul Kepner

qualified eighth in the 200 free (1:52.99).

In the 100 butterfly, the Sailors will have seniors Robert Weiner and

Ryan Gough in the finals. Weiner was fifth with a 58.05, while Gough took

eighth at 59.78.

Senior Mitch Probert will also do battle in the finals after qualifying

eighth in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.23).

Irvine is the best represented in Friday’s finals. In the eight races

competed on Wednesday, the Vaqueros qualified in 27 of the possible 64

available spots.

Despite the heavy population of Vaqs, Kreutzkamp is pleased with the

Sailors contingent.

“This is by far the strongest group of swimmers we’ve had in quite a

while,” he said. “It will be nice to take 10-12 swimmers to CIF, rather

than two or three, like we’ve been doing.”

Peirsol, Belden and Lean have already qualified for the CIF Southern

Section preliminaries for marks sustained throughout the year.

Snelgrove and Ryan Cook will join the threesome with their solid times on

Wednesday.

“It’s so much easier qualifying for CIF before the final meet,”

Kreutzkamp said. “It takes a lot of pressure off of you on Friday and you

can go out and have fun.”

Jendrusina is on that CIF bubble. His 22.84 in the 50 free was just 14

hundredths of a second away from CIF consideration. “You know he’ll be

going for it on Friday, that’s for sure.” Kreutzkamp said.

The Sea View League Finals begin at 1 p.m. on Friday at Newport Harbor.