MISSION VIEJO There was three individual titles and two high-point awards, complete with accompanying iPads. But those weren’t the rewards that meant the most to Orange County’s standouts Sunday as the TYR Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions drew to a close.
The sharing of relationships meant more. And relationships, fittingly, carried weight with Crippen, who died almost four years ago in an open water race
“My favorite quote of his is that he used to say that he doesn’t remember the races he won or lost but he remembers the people he traveled with, competed with, trained with,” Olympian Jessica Hardy said. “That’s truly what I think the sport is about.”
And that’s why Hardy, the former Irvine Novaquatics star, embraced her award presenter, Dave Denniston, after capturing the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday in a swift 1 minute, 7.97 seconds at the Marguerite Recreation Center.
Denniston, a national team breaststroker in his day, helped mentor Hardy’s budding career when they were teammates in Irvine from 2002-04 and they have remained close through their individual trials over the years. Denniston was paralyzed in a sledding accident in 2005 while Hardy endured a supplement saga that wiped away her 2008 Olympics.
“Just his positivity in life is inspirational for me,” Hardy said. “He’s an angel.”
Corey Okubo of Aquazot capped a breakout meet by capturing his fourth title by touching first in the 200-meter individual medley in a lifetime-best 2:03.56. But what struck the recent University graduate was that the Aquazots occupied six of the eight spots in the final. Liam Karas, Hunter Sa-Nguansap, Ken Takahashi, Alex Peterson and Thomas Smith finished fourth through eighth, respectively.
“It just really fun to race them,” said Okubo, who earned the male high-point award. “It does last as a memory.”
Ella Eastin of SOCAL and Crean Lutheran won her first Crippen title by slicing about three seconds from her prelims time in the 200 individual medley to finish in 2:16.77. But before departing the awards area, Eastin made sure to hug the Nadadores’ Katie McLaughlin, the female high-point award winner who raced in nine individual events in the four-day meet.
“She’s super-human,” Okubo said of McLaughlin, who finished second in the 100 butterfly (59.79) to USC’s Kendyl Stewart (58.52), who set the only meet record of the weekend.
