PREP SWIMMING / SEA VIEW LEAGUE : El Toro Girls, Irvine Boys Win Titles

IRVINE — El Toro swimming Coach Sheri Ross told her girls they’re either going to win the Sea View League title as a team or lose as a team.

“I really can’t pinpoint any single event that was the key,” Ross said. “But we won, and I’m so proud of my girls.”

El Toro edged defending league champion Irvine by five points, winning the meet with 501 points. Irvine was second with 496 and Newport Harbor third with 392.

The Irvine boys won as expected with 521 points. El Toro was second with 409 and Woodbridge third with 387.

The Irvine girls, who are ranked third in the county behind El Toro, were slowed when ace freestyle swimmer Wendy O’Brien was upset in the 50-yard freestyle.

Senior Melissa Schutz of Newport Harbor, beat O’Brien, but it took a meet record time of 24.12 seconds to do it.

Schutz’s time broke O’Brien’s 1994 record of 24.13.

For Schutz, who is one of the county’s top high school volleyball players, her time was a personal best. For O’Brien, it was the first time since Southern Section finals her freshman year that she lost the race in high school competition.

O’Brien and Schutz would meet again in the 100 freestyle, along with El Toro rival Katie Lowes, who earlier won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.55.

O’Brien, still fuming after her loss in the 50 free, came back to win the 100 freestyle in a meet-record 51.80, which eclipsed El Toro’s Julie Williams 1980 record of 52.04.

El Toro’s girls won the opening event, the 200 medley relay. Led by Summir Case in the backstroke, followed by Katie Simmons in the breaststroke, Keri Wilson in the butterfly and Lowes in the freestyle, their time of 1:51.76 was two seconds faster than Irvine’s.

Simmons, who was the only double winner in the girls’ events, won the 200 individual medley in 2:10.20, a personal best and one the fastest times in the county this year. Simmons just missed a meet record in the 100 breaststroke, winning in 1:07.22.

In the 500 freestyle, sophomore Katie Cramm of Santa Margarita took five seconds off of her preliminary time to win the event in 5:04.40.

Nicky Jordaan, a freshman from South Africa, cruised to an easy victory in the 100 backstroke, winning in 59.57.