BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:CdM’s Larson to compete in North American Cup

The nerves and anxiety from wanting to reach Indianapolis consumed Kelsey Larson.

A month ago at the Janet Evans Invitational, the Corona del Mar High junior-to-be fell about three seconds short of coming in under 2 minutes, 41 seconds in the 200-meter breaststroke. This summer, the Speedo Junior National Championships, in Indianapolis, were not meant for Larson.

But that hasn’t fazed her.

“That’s OK,” she said after talking about the Janet Evans Invitational. “I’ve just got to keep trying. Hopefully, I’ll get it [this weekend].”

Larson will compete in a new meet, the North American Challenge Cup, which starts today and ends Sunday at USC. The meet will feature young swimmers from Southern California, Mexico and Canada.

Larson will be swimming in the girls’ 15-16-year-old division, representing the U.S., but also her club team, the Irvine AquaZots.

Larson, 16, has been swimming for the AquaZots, coached by UC Irvine head man Brian Pajer, for the past seven years.

The sport has been very important to her ever since she started and she’s hoping to continue to compete in college.

Swimming didn’t start off as serious for Larson.

When she was a toddler, learning to swim was simply for safety. Her father, Bruce, had his children, including Garrett and Nicole, learn to swim because there was a pool in their backyard.

So off they went to the local Harbor View Swim Team, where Coach Ted Bandaruk instructed them.

“We stuck with it, as we got older,” Larson said. “I wanted to swim in college, so I kept it up.”

Now she’s swimming daily, while juggling the necessities that come with becoming a junior in high school. There’s 40 hours of Scholastic Aptitude Test tutoring needed. She has three cracks at the SAT coming in the months ahead. She’s also been preparing for her Advance Placement biology class that she’ll take in the fall.

During the first week of school there will be a test on the first seven chapters of a biology book that she bought not too long ago.

Welcome back.

But before that there’s Aug. 20. That’s when the Larsons leave for their vacation cruise to Cabo San Lucas. Until then, she’ll try to come in under 2:41.

— Steve Virgen