Laguna Beach’s girls swim team will relinquish its CIF-Southern Section Division 3 runner-up plaque from the championships earlier this month because it mistakenly had a swimmer compete in five events, Breakers athletic director Mike Churchill confirmed Wednesday night.
Laguna Beach finished a distant second to Crean Lutheran at the Division 3 finals in Riverside on May 15 but will be returning the plaque it was awarded because it’s the “fair thing” to do, Churchill said. The maximum number of events for swimmers at CIF is four.
“We just made a mistake,” Churchill said. “Our coaches feel sick about it.”
Laguna Beach also has sent an apology letter to the Southern Section, Churchill said.
After the Division 3 finals May 15, Laguna Beach was credited with 188 points, well behind Crean Lutheran (409) but just three points ahead of Viewpoint of Calabasas in the race for second. But the online results on two CIF-supported websites now list Viewpoint as the runner-up to Crean Lutheran at the meet.
The CIF-SS didn’t immediately return an inquiry Wednesday night.
Please send swimming news to Dan Albano at dalbano@ocregister.com
