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Another masterful effort in the pool
CIF champion Oaks Christian breaks 200 relay record at meet
LONG BEACH — The Oaks Christian School boys' team established a CIF-Southern Section Masters swimming meet record in the second race Tuesday night in the Belmont Plaza Pool.
Junior Collin Baratte, senior Nolan Koon, sophomore Chase Bloch and senior Michael Craft turned in a 1-minute, 33.66-second performance in the 200-yard freestyle relay to erase the 2006 record by Mission Viejo (1:34.70).
The Lions ended the night with a fast 3:06.49 time in the 400 freestyle relay behind Yucaipa (3:03.86, a meet record) and Redlands (3:05.85). Koon swam the final leg for Oaks Christian, which won its fourth straight CIF title last Saturday.
No team scores are recorded in the meet.
Westlake's Aislinn Smalling and Thousand Oaks' Camille Duckett continued their successful strokes against the 24 best swimmers from all divisions.
Smalling was second in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:49:12. Duckett, the Division II champion, was third in 1:49.43. Duckett was also third in the 100 freestyle in 51.77. Smalling added a third place in the 500 freestyle (4:52.20) and anchored Westlake's 200 freestyle relay team's third-place finish (1:37.98).
Smalling also anchored the second-place 400 freestyle relay team with a 3:32.23
Once again, Oaks Christian displayed its pool of talent.
"We're swimming great so far," said Koon.
Koon, the Division III standout, won the 200 individual medley in 1:50.71.
"I'm pretty excited, we are 2 for 2. We just want to carry momentum from the CIF (championship). We're just having fun and swimming fast," said Koon, who will swim for UC Berkeley.
Oaks Christian coach Dave Moore said the swimmers decided who would swim the anchor legs on the relay. Kevin Nielsen anchored the 200 medley relay after Chase Bloch was the final leg in Saturday's Division III finals.
"It was pretty fun," said Nielsen.
Nielsen was fourth in the 100 butterfly (49.92), edging teammate Bloch (50.16).
Moore said the strategy was to load up the relays with all the Lions talent.
Lynette Lim of Palm Springs captured the 200 freestyle race in 1:48.95, finishing ahead of Smalling and Duckett. Lim prevailed in the 500 freestyle (4:47.940), a meet record.
Smalling said she was happy with her time, besting her Division II finals time of 1:49.48.
"I'm really excited and feeling good about tonight," said Smalling.
Smalling said she's raced Lim in club swimming and knew she was fast.
Jackie Brousseau, Iris Yan and Marissa DeWames were members of the Westlake 200 freestyle relay team. Brousseau, Nora Darago and DeWames comprised the 400 freestyle relay team.
Thousand Oaks coach Mike Giles was elated with his 10 swimmers, five club and five high school athletes.
"They did a phenomenal job," said Giles. "They're racing fantastic. It's hard to drop times after you taper for the divisional finals."
The Lancers girls' 400 freestyle relay team had an emotional finish as Duckett and Alex Henley completed their high school swimming careers. Dusty Holmes and Lauren Barnett are both sophomores and will return in 2008-09. They were the 11th fastest team in 3:39.19.
"Im going to miss all those girls," said Henley.
"We looked up to them," said Holmes.
Duckett said she's going to miss the bus rides and all the fun times with the high school team.
Duckett also said she enjoyed her rivalry with Smalling.
"It was back and forth. I had decent swims tonight," said Duckett.




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