Breakers strong in CIF

In CIF-SS swimming:

Laguna Beach athletes turned in strong performances at the Division II girls’ swim finals Saturday at Belmont Plaza.

Highlights for the Breakers included freshman Chelsea Wild finishing in fourth place in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:02.92, and the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshmen Annika Dries, Wild, Taylor Dodson and Andrea Reigel, placed eighth in a time of 1:42.78.

Wild entered the Division II prelims as the No. 4 seed in the 500-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard freestyle relay team was seeded fifth in the event.

Wild also came up big Tuesday at the CIF Masters Meet at Belmont Plaza, where she finished in eighth place among all division swimmers in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle. Wild swam a 5:02.28.

“Chelsea did an awesome job at Masters,” Laguna Coach Rick McKee said. “I’m very proud of all of the girls and the boys, as well. To have so many freshmen do so well at CIF says a lot about the future of the swim program at Laguna Beach.”

Laguna finished the Division IV finals meet with 51 points, good for 18th place in the division. The Breakers’ performance helped the Pacific Coast League dominate the meet, as league members Corona del Mar won the Division II title and University finished runner-up. Northwood placed fifth, Tesoro was 11th, Beckman spot ahead of Laguna at No. 16 and Calvary Chapel/Santa Ana finished 27th.

McKee said nine girls’ school records were set throughout the course of the season: Wild broke the 200-yard freestyle on three occasions and the 500-yard freestyle once; Reigel set new marks in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-backstroke; Dries recorded top times in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events; and the 200- and 400-yard relay teams ? which included Wild, Dries, Reigel and Dodson ? also set new records.

Below is a listing of times and placements for Laguna swimmers at Saturday’s Division II finals: