ANAHEIM – La Habra’s girls swimming team didn’t need to worry much about narrowly falling short at the 27th Savanna Invitational on Saturday.
The Highlanders used two victories by improving sophomore Lindsey Potter and their depth to outdistance runner-up Pacifica by 48.5 points to capture the 12-school meet.
Last year, La Habra’s girls dueled Paramount and Segerstrom for the crown and finished third, 11.5 points out of a second place and 13 shy of first.
The Highlanders scored 338.5 points on Saturday, steering clear of Pacifica at 290.
“I was a little nervous at the beginning … but they all swam their hearts out,” second-year La Habra coach Courtney Robertson said. “We had good enough speed all the way through (the meet).”
Potter posted lifetime-best times in touching first in 200 (2 minutes, 4.02 seconds) and 500-yard freestyles (5:24.64).
In the 500, she edged Kennedy’s Rose Empresalapa (5:25.33) by almost three-quarters of a second.
Potter and Empresalapa each posted times faster than the boys winner Bradley Clinton of Pacifica (5:28.26). Potter also sliced about 18 1/2 seconds from her runner-up finish in the 500 last year.
“That was really good,” Robertson said of Potter, who is still well off the automatic Division 2 qualifying standard of 5:09.
La Habra also received second-place finishers from Emalee Frady, Natasha Velez and Savannah Taylor.
Kennedy’s Akili Allen doubled in the boys meet, touching first in the 50 (22.76) and 100 freestyles (49.61). Allen narrowly missed the automatic Division 3 qualifying standard in both races.
Garden Grove’s Robert Mihailescu also doubled with victories in the 200 individual medley (2:15.12) and 100 breaststroke (1:06.42). Division 4 Paramount claimed the boys title.
