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  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year. She departs high school having won eight individual CIF titles and holding two county records.

  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year. She departs high school having won eight individual CIF titles and holding two county records.

  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year. She departs high school having won eight individual CIF titles and holding two county records.

  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year.

  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year.

  • Lindsey Engel departs high school having won eight individual CIF...

    Lindsey Engel departs high school having won eight individual CIF titles and holding two county records.

  • Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small...

    Crean Lutheran swimmer Lindsey Engel is the Register's Girls Small Schools Athlete of the Year.

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Dan Albano. Sports HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Staff Mug Shot taken August 26, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER.

Lindsey Engel locked on her target and quickly made her move.

With Crean Lutheran’s post-CIF celebration about to start on the bulkhead of the pool, the swimmer grabbed her coach’s arm and started to push.

“There was no getting off that plank without getting wet,” said Coach Craig Brown, who gladly took his victory plunge after the Saints claimed a second consecutive CIF-SS Division 3 title at Riverside City College.

Engel’s enthusiasm stirred the festivity, but so did her racing between the lane lines.

The Stanford-bound senior capped a dominating season and high school career by capturing two individual titles and anchoring two record-setting relays.

For her efforts, Engel is the Register’s Small Schools Female Athlete of the Year for the second time.

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“Phenomenal,” Brown said of Engel’s performance at the Southern Section finals on May 15.

Engel swept the 50 and 100 freestyles for the second consecutive season but saved her signature moments for the relays.

She split her anchor in the 400-yard freestyle relay in an eye-popping 48.64 seconds to bring the Saints to the wall first in a Division 3-record and county-leading 3:21.41.

The split blew away her winning time in the 100 freestyle, a national-caliber 49.15.

Engel delivered a similar feat in the 200 medley relay.

She split an ultra-quick 22.32 to bring Crean Lutheran to the wall in an Orange County and Division 3-record 1:41.79.

Engel’s split would later leave her winning time in the 50 free – an Orange County-leading 22.71 – playing catch up.

Brown said Engel’s relay times showed how much she cared for her teammates and the program.

“She’s the one who started the program,” he said.

Crean Lutheran didn’t have a swim team when Engel arrived as a touted freshman from the Irvine Novaquatics club. But by the spring of 2011, Engel had three teammates for CIF and Crean Lutheran made its championship debut.

“We just made it back to finals in a relay,” she recalled of her freshman year. “We were so excited we made it back and got 13th (in the 200 free relay) and it was so cool. Now, we’re just winning by a ton and it’s really neat. It’s fun. We’ve grown so much.”

Engel wrote plenty of history. She captured eight individual CIF titles, going undefeated in four CIF meets. During her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons, she nearly set a CIF record each time she swam an individual race at prelims and finals.

The JCC Waves club swimmer departs Crean Lutheran as the Orange County record holder in the 50 (22.53) and 100 (48.96) freestyles.

But for Engel, her high school swimming journey was about more than setting records. It was about having fun and being with classmates.

You knew, for example, she wore braces as a freshman because she smiled so much. She flashed thumbs up after races or gave the hang loose sign.

“High school swimming is fun,” she said. “There are no more club teams. … times don’t matter as much. They do, but it’s all about who can get their hand on the wall first.

“So it’s about the race and that’s definitely one of the most exciting parts about swimming.”

Engel also made an impact away from the pool. She earned a school-high 4.67 grade-point average, served four years in student government and proudly scored a touchdown in the schools’ recent all-girls “powder puff” flag-football game.

One of her last assignments will be serving as valedictorian during graduation on Saturday.

“She’s worked really, really hard,” Athletic Director Eric Olson said. “She’s really started something and left something that will be sustainable.”

So how is her commencement speech coming?

“I think she’s thinking about it when she’s staring at the black line in the pool (at practice),” her mother, Tami, joked.

But that might be as good of a place as any. That’s where Lindsey Engel experienced so much fun and teamwork.

Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com