Killer Whales win conference title

It takes team depth to win an event that features six different squads, and when the South Coast Swim Conference held it’s finals this past Saturday at Corona del Mar High, that was the quality that separated the Newport Hills Killer Whales from all others.

In the end, Newport Hills won the SCSC finals with 1,676 points, rival Harbor View came in second with 1,460.

The 7-8-year-old boys’ group had the traditional five individual events, plus the two relays, with the Killer Whales only taking first place in one of those five individual events. However, Newport Hills won the 7-8 boys’ division by 22.5 points by taking first, third and fourth in the 25-yard freestyle, second and fourth in the 25 breaststroke, third in the 25 butterfly, second and fifth in the 25 backstroke, third and fourth in the 50 free and by winning the 100 free relay and taking second in the 100 medley relay.

Newport Hills earned the most points in the under-6 boys, the 7-8 girls, the 7-8 boys, the 9-10 boys, and the 13-14 boys. In addition, even though the 9-10 Killer Whale girls took third and the 13-14 girls were sixth, the 9-10 and 13-14 Killer Whale boys were so strong in their wins, that Newport Hills won both the 9-10 and 13-14 combined age-group scores. The Under-6 girls were second in their division by only four points, and with the first-place under-6 boys, they helped the Killer Whales win the combined under-6 division too.

The 13-14 boys Killer Whales won all five individual stroke events in addition to winning the medley relay and coming in second in their freestyle relay. The foursome of Christian Garkani, Nick Furgatch, Blake Motal and Reid Chase started the meet off with a new SCSC record and new team record of 1:48.88 in the medley relay, breaking the old meet time set at last year’s finals of 1:51.31 by Harbor View swimmers Marks, Berry, Bandaruk and English. The medley record was just the beginning of a monster meet for Garkani, who then went on to win the 100 free with a new SCSC finals meet record of 51.35, breaking the record of 51.50 set last year by Harbor View’s Matt Berry, then setting a new meet record in the 50 fly in 25.11, beating the old record of 25.71 set in 2003 by Sean Robbins. Garkani finished the day with a first-place new meet and team record in the 100 individual medley in 57.42, beating the old SCSC meet record of 59.38 set in 2003 by Sean Robbins and his own team record of 58.81 set in June of this year.