05.20.07
Two cool in the pool
Two cool in the pool
Irvin, Halaska earn titles in 100 breast; Stockdale wins boys 200 medley relay
BY STEVE LYNCH | Saturday, May 19 2007 11:25 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, May 19 2007 11:30 PM
Special to the Californian
No one was able to knock Clovis West off its long-time perch atop the team standings, but several local high school swimmers turned in quality individual performances during Saturday’s Central Section swimming championships at Cal State Bakersfield.
Stockdale’s Emily Irvin, Tehachapi’s Michael Halaska and the Stockdale boys relay claimed the three Section victories.
Led by Irvin and Corri Payne, the Stockdale girls were fast in the pool all day. The Mustangs finished as the top local girls team, placing third in the final team standings.
Irvin, a junior, won the 100-yard breaststroke title for the third consecutive with a personal best time of 1:07.19, and finished fourth in 100 butterfly. She also helped Stockdale to a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay and a fifth place in the 200 freestyle relay.
“I knew I was going to get first in the breaststroke,” Irvin said. “I won the past two years so I really wanted to try to pull it out but I knew there was some tough competition. I just wanted to get a good time.”
Halaska was the only local boys individual champion of the meet. Halaska edged East High’s Griffith Bracke by .27 seconds in boys 100 breaststroke.
Payne was equally busy racking up points for the Mustangs. She finished second in the 500 meter freestyle and third in the 200 meter IM. Payne also swam on Stockdale’s fifth place 200 meter freestyle and seventh place 400 meter freestyle relay teams.
“I was really happy with my performances,” Payne said. “I went a best time in the 200 IM by two seconds. I couldn’t have been happier. My 500 free was one of my best times so I’m very pleased.”
The Garces’ girls put a smile on their coach’s face by placing fourth in the team standings.
“I was surprised,” Garces coach Bill Potter said. “I knew we had some good girls. They swam so fast this weekend. We didn’t have as many girls in the meet as a lot of the other teams so I was really happy with the fourth place.
“We had talked and our goal this year was a top 10 finish. After last night we were looking at maybe fifth or sixth or seventh.”
Kelly LeBeau had the best individual finish of the day for the Rams. She placed third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free.
On the boys side, Liberty proved once again that quality is more important than quantity.
Liberty had just four boys in the finals but still managed to accumulate enough points to finish fourth overall. The Patriots’ self titled “Fantastic Four” of Justin Kraetsch, Jordan Urmston, Mark Silvius, and Michael Schwartz were quietly consistent.
Schwartz’s third place in the 100 butterfly was the groups only top-3 finish.
Stockdale finished sixth in the boys team standings but were on pace for a top-five finish before disqualification in the meet’s final event the 400 free relay set the team back.
It was a disappointing finish compared to how the Mustangs started the day.
The 200 medley relay team of John Kim (backstroke), Brian Collier (breaststroke), Dan Wickensheimer (butterfly), and Mike Wickensheimer (freestyle) brought home a victory with a time of 1:39.85.
“I really am really excited about it,” Stockdale coach Adam Bledsoe said. “That was our goal from the very first day of practice this year, to try and win that relay. We have a great team. They’re all young. The oldest is a junior with three sophomores. We’ve been working hard on that. I am pretty excited.”
Collier finished third in the 100 backstroke, and teammate Dan Wickensheimer was impressive in the 100 butterfly but finished second to Edison’s Kohlton Norys. Wickensheimer’s time of 51.39 was good enough for All American consideration but not quite enough to beat Norys.
“It wasn’t first place but it was my personal record and still another All American consideration so I was pretty happy with it,” said Wickensheimer.
Other local swimmers with noteworthy performances included Frontier’s Stevie Hughey, who finished second in the girls 200 IM and third in the 100 freestyle.
