CdM boys finish third in league

IRVINE — Foster Hoose stood on the block of Lane 2 on Friday afternoon at Woollett Aquatics Center, getting ready for the 100-yard freestyle race at the Pacific Coast League swimming finals.

As the CdM senior prepared for his race, three other Sea Kings seniors showed up directly across from him to cheer him on. They were Brendan Hack, Ben Brooks and Jon Polos.

Hoose and Polos are going to UC Irvine for water polo, while Hack and Brooks are going to USC. But on Friday, they were just swimmers, enjoying themselves and trying to rack up some fast times at league finals.

Going up against teams in Northwood and University with more club swimmers, the Sea Kings held their own, though they ended up with a third-place finish in league after placing second at league finals.

Northwood won the boys’ league title, with defending champion University in second.

Woodbridge won the girls’ league finals. CdM, led by girls’ 50 freestyle winner Nicole Lin, placed fifth.

For the CdM boys, who lost to Northwood, 86-84, and University, 89-81, in league dual meets, it was the conclusion of a satisfying league season.

“It was a great season,” said CdM junior Ethan Archer, the lone elite club swimmer on the boys’ side. “We were within 10 points of Uni, 10 points of Northwood. Considering [club swimmer] Tim [Hanson] was out [while recovering from a shoulder injury], we had a great season. I mean, our polo guys are phenomenal. They’re a lot more laid back. It’s great to swim with them, because you just have fun at meets.”

The University of Michigan-bound Hanson was still on deck Friday to support his CdM teammates, as was Eva Merrell, a sophomore who is not swimming high school this season to prepare for Olympic trials. They both saw some fast swims.

Archer was second in the 200 individual medley in a season-best 1:54.33, and he also placed third in the 200 free in a personal-best 1:41.71. It was a tough combination, as the events are back-to-back.

For the CIF Southern Section Division 1 meet next week, Archer plans to swim different events, the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke. He said he hopes to go under 50 seconds for the first time in both events. He’s looking forward to swimming against his club teammate, Andrew Knoell of University, who won both events at league finals and earned Boys’ Swimmer of the Meet honors.

CdM had other water polo players step up. Sophomore Ryan Schildwachter went a 58.07 in the 100 breast to place second, and he was also fifth in the 200 IM in 1:59.50. Just a couple of weeks ago, Schildwachter was happy to break a minute in the breaststroke, and now he’s dropped two more seconds than that.

“Timmy Hanson came over after Schildwachter’s breaststroke and he goes, ‘I don’t know, Barry, I’ve never seen a water polo guy go that fast in the breaststroke,’” CdM boys’ Coach Barry O’Dea said. “We have some very talented kids that are doing some very special things. It’s kind of neat to see.”

Polos was second in the 50 free in a personal-best 21.87 and sixth in the 100 butterfly, in 53.30. He was also on the CdM boys’ relay that placed the best, the 200 free relay, where Archer, Hoose, Tanner Roletter and Polos touched in a season-best 1:26.38, a drop of two seconds. Northwood won the race in 1:25.82.

“We all dropped time, which is what we wanted,” Polos said. “We all got the 1:26, which is what we wanted. ... All in all, it was a successful meet. This team has come really far.

“We swim a couple of months out of the year, do polo most of the time. The fact that we’re beating some of these [club] guys, I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s kind of a slap in the face to them too, because they put so much work into this and then we come in here and [are successful].”

On the girls’ side, Lin was CdM’s only individual varsity event winner of the day. She repeated as 50 freestyle league champion, using a strong finishing kick to touch first in 23.98. The time was just three-hundredths of a second off her time at the Division 1 finals last year, where she placed fifth in the event.

“I was actually kind of nervous going into this 50,” she said. “I was racing all my club friends, and I won it last year. I felt some pressure to win it again this year ... [Eva] saw my 50 and I think that helped me get pumped up this year.”

Lin also competed in the breaststroke, where she was fifth in 1:06.26.

“I didn’t have the greatest turns,” she said. “It was good, because I know what I can work on for CIF now.”

CdM junior Jaleh Moaddeli was another highlight in the girls’ side. She finished third in the 500 free in 5:14.98, and fourth in the 200 free in 1:58.32. Both times were personal bests and Division 1 consideration times.

Several CdM swimmers have Division 1 automatic times. Those with consideration times will find out Saturday afternoon if they make it to the Division 1 preliminaries in their specific events.

Division 1 preliminaries are Thursday at 9 a.m. at Riverside City College, with the finals Saturday at 5 p.m.

O’Dea said he’s wanting a top-10 finish in Division 1 for the CdM boys, who placed fifth last year.

“I think it’s a realistic goal for us,” he said.