Los Alamitos boys swimming coach Brent Danna was blown away by the performance.
The Orange County record was swept away.
The Griffins’ 200-yard freestyle relay helped highlight a fast Sunset League finals Friday by breaking the Orange County record with a sizzling time of 1 minute, 22.99 seconds at Golden West College.
The team of leadoff Brandon Toland (20.84 seconds), Sullivan Moore (20.85), Abe Marvel (20.72) and anchor Gabe Browning (20.58) became the first swimmers from Los Alamitos to break an Orange County swimming record. The boys broke Capistrano Valley’s 2013 standard of 1:23.10 by just over tenth of a second.
The sprint-relay victory, also a Sunset League meet record, propelled Los Alamitos to a convincing league crown and surprised Danna. The Griffins outdistanced runner-up Newport Harbor (1:24.78) by almost two seconds.
“It was epic,” Danna said late Friday. “These guys surpassed all my expectations. We swam lights out.”
Toland had a special meet. The uncommitted senior split a 19.87 anchor in the 200 medley relay to lead the Griffins to the victory in a school-record 1:34.72.
In the 50 free finals, he also outdueled Grant Brehm of Huntington Beach for the victory in a meet record. Toland out-touched Brehm – the league record holder from prelims — by two one-hundredths of a second with a 20.33 to move to No. 3 in Orange County history.
Only Olympians Michael Cavic (19.69 for Tustin in 2002) and Derya Buyukuncu (20.27 for Woodbridge in 1994) have been faster.
Brehm moved to No. 4 in county history with a 20.35 — an improvement from his 20.44 in prelims – but got some revenge in the 100 free final. The Cal Poly SLO-bound senior outdistanced Toland by half a second to win 45.39.
