Northwood’s boys swim team opened its season with a series of strong showings.
The Timberwolves defeated Mater Dei and Santiago of Corona in a double-dual meet last week and claimed titles at the Irvine City Relay Championships and Villa Park Relays.
Northwood excelled despite not being at full strength.
“It was good for all of us,” Northwood coach Alex Nieto said. “It’s nice to see that we’ve got a lot of depth.”
Nieto’s lineups for the breaststroke relays Friday and Saturday showcased the depth.
At the Irvine City meet on Friday, Northwood used Kyle Charbonnet, Jason Wong, Henry Wu and Billy Monjay to finish second to University in the 400-yard breaststroke relay with a time of 4 minutes, 13.87 seconds. Monjay split a swift 59.19 anchor.
The Timberwolves then used Wong, Gabe Munoz, HwaMin Sim and Shayan Shaikh to capture the 400 breast at Villa Park on Saturday.
Munoz and Sim are part of Northwood’s strong freshman class that includes Hunter Hitchens and Shawn Lou.
Northwood won four races at Villa Park to outdistance Santa Margarita for the title.
Nieto’s focus remains on preparing for the Pacific Coast League. He also knows that University wasn’t at full strength last week.
“We take it with a grain of salt and prepare for a good upcoming season,” he said.
Santa Margarita’s girls set five meet records en route to defending their title at the Villa Park Relays. …
University’s boys will play host to Loyola of Los Angeles today at 3:15 p.m. in a pairing of the top two teams from last season’s CIF-SS Division 1 finals. The Trojans claimed their first Division 1 crown in May.
– DAN ALBANO
WATER POLO
All-County water polo player Maddie Musselman has withdrawn from Corona del Mar to pursue making the U.S. Olympic team, Sea Kings athletic director Don Grable said.
Musselman, a junior, has enrolled in an on-line school, he said.
“She’ll always be a Sea Queen,” Grable said of Musselman, also a standout in swimming. “We’re proud of her.”
Musselman helped Corona del Mar reach the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals last month. She made her U.S. national team debut in the fall of 2013. …
Villa Park’s Zach Larkin and Huntington Beach’s Mark Canner have been selected coaches for the O.C. all-star match Sunday at Villa Park at 2 p.m. …
El Dorado has named Villa Park graduate Bryan Swarm as its director of aquatics.
– DAN ALBANO
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team will try to set a CIF-SS record tonight for consecutive wins.
The Oilers enter their nonleague match against visiting Servite with a streak of 69 consecutive wins, tying them with Laguna Beach (1981-83) for the record.
The Oilers won 24 consecutive matches to end the 2013 season, went 40-0 last year and are 5-0 this season. Their last loss was to San Clemente on March 18, 2013, in the Orange County Championships final.
The Oilers and Friars will join Corona del Mar, Edison, Newport Harbor and San Clemente as the county teams competing in the Best of the West Invitational, which runs Friday and Saturday at Poway High.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
BOYS WRESTLING
Western’s Leangelo White (182 pounds) finished in fourth place Saturday at the CIF State Wrestling Tournament in Bakersfield.
It was the best finish for a Western wrestler since 1983.
“This has been a pretty long, hard road,” he said of wrestling. “I didn’t get very serious until the end of my sophmore year, when I noticed that friends and guys in my league were getting awards. Ever since then, I decided that I was going to do better, so I started going to camps, watching videos and here I am today.”
Last year, the 6-foot-2 White went 1-2 at Masters.
He opened this year with a third-place medal at the Cossarek Classic. He was first at the Mann Classic, Rim of the World Invitational and fifth at the Temecula Valley Invitational. He also won titles in the Empire League and CIF, and he finished second at Masters.
“I knew I had the goals to place at state,” he said. “It was all mental that I had to get right. I had to be confident in my ability to perform.”
White advanced to the semifinals before losing to Clovis’ AJ Nevills. He posted a 3-1 record Saturday, losing the third-place match.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
