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  • Crean Lutheran's girls swim team celebrates its second consecutive CIF...

    Crean Lutheran's girls swim team celebrates its second consecutive CIF Division 3 title on Thursday night at Riverside City College.

  • Crean Lutheran's 200 free relay, from left, of Katia Young,...

    Crean Lutheran's 200 free relay, from left, of Katia Young, Tianna Jorgenson, Rachel Taylor and Lauren Maurer won in a Division 3 record 1:38.17 at the Division 3 finals Thursday night.

  • Crean Lutheran's 2000yard medley relay, from left, of Emily Eastin,...

    Crean Lutheran's 2000yard medley relay, from left, of Emily Eastin, Rachel Taylor, Ella Eastin and Lindsey Engel set an Orange County record at the Division 3 finals Thursday night. The team clocked a 1:41.79.

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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.

RIVERSIDE – The progressions of Ella Eastin and Lindsey Engel as elite high school swimmers left them racing against themselves Thursday night. And it was no easy task.

The duo’s records from last season were too fast for them to touch.

Eastin and Engel instead combined forces with their Crean Lutheran teammates to create the signature moments at the CIF-SS Division 3 finals.

Division 3 results

The Saints shattered the county record in the 200-yard medley relay, almost broke the county record in the 400 freestyle relay and set the Division 3 record in the 200 free relay en route to defending their crown at Riverside City College.

Eastin broke a 30-year-old Division 3 record in the breaststroke with a lifetime-best 1 minute, 1.75 seconds, but it was hard not to focus on Crean’s relays. The medley and 400 each missed national records by about a second.

“All about team. It’s a great team,” said Crean Lutheran coach Craig Brown, whose team won nine of 11 events and racked up 409 points to outdistance runner-up Laguna Beach at 188. “Those are great swims (on the relays).”

Laguna Beach’s boys rode their relays to a runner-up finish to J.W. North, which scored 271 points to outdistance the Breakers at 255.5. Laguna Beach’s Max Morgan, Cade Baldridge, Cameron Karkoska and Erik Juliusson combined to claim the medley (1:36.30) and 400 (3:09.05).

Juliusson also won two individual events while Calvary Chapel’s Donny Hadden captured the 50 (21.61).

In the girls medley, Eastin and Engel teamed with Rachel Taylor and Emily Eastin to smash Edison’s 2010 county record by just over 1 1/2 seconds with a Division 3-record 1:41.79.

In the 400 relay, Ella Eastin led off with a lifetime-best 49.82 and teamed with Emily Eastin (50.84), Tianna Jorgenson (52.11) and anchor Engel (48.64) to clock a Division 3-record 3:21.41, just two-tenths off JSerra’s O.C. record 3:21.20.

Crean Lutheran’s 200 free relay of Katia Young, Jorgenson, Taylor and Lauren Maurer broke Laguna Beach’s 2009 Division 3 record of 1:38.17.

“It’s amazing that we can have such talented swimmers and we can still have the depth to put another relay together,” Maurer said. “We’ve all worked hard to be here and it’s great that we all can get up and swim a relay and break a CIF relay.”

Ella Eastin posted her third-fastest 200 IM to touch first in a county-leading 1:56.54, about a second off her national private school record. And Engel swept the 50 (22.71) and 100 (49.15) freestyles but fell short of her county records. Emily Eastin also was a double-winner for the Saints, taking the butterfly and backstroke.

Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com