Capo Valley leaves rivals behind at Millikan Relays

LONG BEACH – Capistrano Valley's boys swim team didn't have to contend with the dramatics of Tom Shields this time.

The Cougars still faced a big challenge in the 400-yard freestyle relay Saturday night at the Millikan Southern Section Relays at Belmont Plaza.

And just like last March against Shields, Capistrano Valley prevailed in the 400 in record-setting fashion to highlight its team championship.

Behind a blistering 46.04-second anchor split by Spenser Goodman, the top-ranked Cougars beat Division 1 rival Loyola in the 400 en route to claiming a second consecutive Millikan crown.

Coach Steve Yancey's squad also won the 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke in finishing with 215 points. Loyola set two meet records and finished second with 182 points. A deep Mater Dei squad was a surprise third with 146 points, 10 points ahead of Corona del Mar.

Capistrano Valley led Loyola by just four-tenths of a second going into the final leg of the 400. Goodman maintained that lead for the first 50 before powering through the final 25 yards with a flurry of arms and legs.

Goodman combined with Lucas Norman (47.27), Logan Redondo (47.33) and Scott Burbach (48.68) to bring the Cougars to the wall in a meet-record 3 minutes, 9.32 seconds – about a second faster than their record from last season. Loyola touched second in 3:10.91, and joined the Cougars in the automatic All-America club.

Last year, Goodman held off a blazing anchor in the 400 by Edison's Shields, who now swim for Cal.

"He's a great racer," Yancey said of the Harvard-bound Goodman. "(He's) tough to beat."

Goodman said he enjoyed Saturday's duel more than facing Shields, which he called a nerve-rattling experience.

"This race, I knew we were going to come out on top," he said. "I wasn't as nervous about it. I was more excited and ready to go."

Capistrano Valley dominated in its two other victories. The Cougars won the 400 IM by just over four seconds with a 3:40.69. Capistrano Valley's 200 backstroke of Brock Redondo, Burbach, Chad Farnan and Logan Redondo won by 3 1/2 seconds with a 1:38.90, good for fourth in meet history.

Second-ranked Corona del Mar smashed the meet record in the 200 medley relay. Ari Marks, Michael Liao, John Kim and Matt Berry touched in an automatic All-America 1:36.49, which sliced almost half-a-second off Irvine's 1999 mark.

Fountain Valley was the only other county team to win a race. Seeded second to Murrieta Valley in the 200 fly, the Barons' Nick Ingram, Denny Huang, Peter Nguyen and Lyndon Tran clocked a swift 1:37.81, which missed cracking into the meet's top-10 by 13 one-hundredth of a second.

Loyola broke the breaststroke (1:50.48) and 300 free (2:11.04) records. In the 6x50 free, Fred Abramyan, Britt Dalby, Connor Sharpe, Alex Fortis, Kyle Nadel and Matt Thorson broke Corona del Mar's 1986 record of 2:11.40, the oldest varsity boys standard at the meet.

On Thursday, Capistrano Valley, Loyola and Corona dle Mar will continue their rivlary with a double-dual meet at Capistrano Valley at 3:15 p.m.

"That meet is going to be a lot of fun," Loyola coach Kevin Mann said. "Capo is tough."