Sailors’ top 10 reach finals

Natalie Venegas

The Newport Harbor High girls swim team had 10 athletes who qualified

for the Sea View League finals after the preliminaries at Irvine High

Wednesday.

The Sailors finished in the top eight in eight events, with four

swimmers qualifying in more than one event.

Although only two girls finished in the top three, head coach Ken

LaMont sees it as an advantage.

“We’ve had better swim times, but I’d like to think that we are in

a pretty good position. We have nowhere to go but up.”

Sophomore Kayley Oka finished highest for the Sailors with second

place in the 100-yard butterfly with 59.99 and placed third in the

200 individual medley with 2:13.79.

Junior Leah Robertson took third place in two events, including

the 50 freestyle (25.49) and 100 free (55.26).

Junior Kally Lucas qualified with a fourth-place finish in the 500

free (5:23.99) and sixth place in the 200 free (2:03.43).

Senior Anne Belden took fourth in the 100 free (55.58) and sixth

in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.59) while junior Katie Kepner qualified

after finishing fifth in the 50 free (26.15) and seventh in the 100

breaststroke (1:14.80).

Senior Melissa Wheeler qualified for the 200 free with a

seventh-place finish in 2:03.62, while sophomores Jillian Chiapuzio

and Marisa Cottam move on to the 50 free finals following seventh-

(26.40) and eighth-place (26.46) finishes, respectively.

Senior Ashling Taylor took fifth place in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.09) and Bryndis Klein took fifth in the 100 free with 55.89.

The girls move on to Friday’s league finals, in hopes of coming

out with a league championship.

“We have accomplished a lot,” said Wheeler. “We didn’t have a lot

of girls with time drops, but everyone did a good job of holding

their position, and I know we’ll be a lot more competitive on

Friday.”