Mike Sciacca The new kid on the...

Mike Sciacca

The new kid on the block seems to be quite comfortable in his new

surroundings.

The Laguna Beach High boys’ water polo team has gotten off to an

impressive start in the 2002 season, a season in which the Breakers

are playing at the Division I level for the first time.

Laguna Beach, up from Division II, ran its record to 4-0 last

Tuesday with an 8-7 nonleague victory over visiting rival Capistrano

Valley in an intense match that went to the wire.

Earlier in the week, the Breakers had a 7-6 triumph over La Canada

in a match that saw Nima Mortazavi score four goals -- including

three in the opening quarter, and goalie Hugh Sandys come up with

five steals and 10 blocks in a standout performance.

In other Breakers

sports action:

Girls’ Tennis

Laguna Beach, which opened up the season with an 11-7 win over

fourth-ranked Woodbridge on Sept. 17, split its past two matches.

The Breakers picked up their second win of the season with a 17-1

pasting of Aliso Niguel. Singles players Camerin Barron-Sandman, a

senior, freshman Claire Reitsch, and Katie Ocwat swept the opposition

to lead the Breakers to an impressive victory.

On Tuesday, Laguna Beach was defeated by second-ranked Dana Hills,

5-3.

Barron-Sandman and Reitsch each went 1-2 in singles play, and all

three Breakers doubles teams picked up one out of three sets in the

loss.

Kady Pooler and freshman Sarah Fansler swept in singles play to

lead the Dolphins.

“I feel like this was a closer match than the score and the girls

should be proud of their performance,” Laguna Beach Coach Brian

Ricker said. “We lost two tiebreakers and five sets in doubles player

were either 6-4 or 6-3 scores.

“This team [Dana Hills] will be tough to overcome because of their

two highly-rated singles players and strong depth at doubles, but I

think our singles players are improving daily and capable of big

upsets. Our doubles teams are working hard learning new strategies

and should make great strides through the season. This might be the

toughest team we play this year.”

Cross Country

Coming from as far away as Washington state and Las Vegas, 190

schools and 6,500 runners converged in Irvine last Saturday to give

the Woodbridge Cross Country Invitational its largest field of

contestants in the event’s 20-year history.

Laguna Beach senior Brendan Bowler finished among the top 100 boys

competitors with a time of 15:50. He was followed by teammate Nathan

Greene who ran a 16:24. Junior Grant Hofmeister had Laguna’s third

best time of 17:03, sophomore Sean Fuszard ran a 17:44, and seniors

Henry Morgan and Quinn Cargill were neck and neck, finishing with

times of 17:48 and 17:49, respectively.

Katherine Gordon topped Laguna Beach’s varsity girls with a time

of 20:25. She was followed by Emma Proctor (21:29), Maddy Bell

(22:02), Sara Stevenson (22:08) and Carly Lojacono (22:28).

For the first time ever, Laguna Beach’s freshman boys won first

place in their race. Time Sanchez led the Breakers with a run of

18:25, followed by Adam Salem at 19:15, Ricardo Espiritu at 19:30,

Justin Rovin at 19:35 and Brendan Finnerty at 19:39.

Robert Knapp (19:41), Aman Bhatia (21:56), Kevin Tran (22:05),

Mark Castillo (24:47) and Michael Young (29.30) rounded out the

Breaker’s top 10.