Rick Devereux
Apparently, being a water polo school has its advantages. At the
beginning of the boys swim season, Newport Harbor High Coach Jason
Lynch had to erase a message from his chalkboard that read, "Newport
Harbor is a water polo team that swims." But because the Sailors are
so proficient at water polo (they made it to the second round of the
CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs the past two years) the
sprint swim events have excelled.
Case in point was Wednesday's Sea View League preliminaries at the
Newport Harbor pool. All four Sailors who swam in the 50-yard
freestyle qualified for the championship final to be held Friday,
also at Newport.
"It's great," Lynch said. "We try to pride ourselves that we can
swim sprint freestyle because that translates into water polo for us.
I think the guys take pride in that. We train a lot for the freestyle
and sprint freestyle, so I think they're pretty prepared for that."
The top Tar in the 50 free was sophomore Daniel Furman, who blazed
through all competition with a 21.88 finish, the top qualifying mark.
Senior Sean McGhie qualified fourth (22.31), followed by sophomore
Telford Cottam (fifth in 22.60) and senior Michael Bury (seventh in
22.71).
But it was Furman's finish that had people talking. Before the
season started, Furman had a personal goal to finish faster than 22.5
in the 50 free. Wednesday's time not only beat his personal goal by
.62, but came close to breaking the school record of 21.51.
"I do think that's a possibility for him by the time he's a
senior," Lynch said regarding Furman's chances of owning the school
record in the near future. "He's only a sophomore. He's going to grow
and get stronger, which is all he needs really."
"I want to win league and it's going to be tight because the 50 is
always close," Furman said. "I want to win that and if I could get
the record, I would be really happy. But I'm not going to set that as
one of my goals."
"The guy he's going against from Aliso Niguel [Austin Luther] is a
junior, so he's a little more experienced," Lynch said, but also
added that Furman has a great shot at winning the event.
The only other Tar to qualify first for Friday was McGhie with a
48.12 finish in the 100 free. Furman qualified eighth in the 100
free.
"Even though the 100 is still a sprint, I think it's too long. I
definitely like the 50 a lot more," Furman said.
Other Sailors swimming Friday in championship finals are Clay
Jorth (200 and 500 free), James Jackson (200 individual medley and
