Lopez Enjoys His Moment of Glory

When it comes to high school swimming, Chris Lopez isn’t exactly a household name. He’s not one of these wunderkinds who have Senior National times or is expected to be in the next Olympics.

But it was Lopez who was the star Saturday night at Belmont Plaza Pool when his anchor swim in the last relay of the meet gave Irvine its first victory in the Southern Section Boys’ Swimming Relays.

Irvine finished with 250 points, followed by Crescenta Valley with 234 and Villa Park with 170.

Lopez’ anchor swim of 21.9 seconds was enough to hold off Crescenta Valley swimmer Sean Winchell, whose team was only a few points behind leader Irvine. Irvine finished the 200-yard medley relay in 1:38.00. Crescenta Valley was .36 behind.

“That finish won us the title,” said Irvine Coach Ken Dory. “That was an incredible finish by Lopez.”

Lopez, who seemed more amazed than his coach at his fast anchor swim, could barely contain his excitement.

“They told me it would come down to this. Oh, yeah. I was swimming so fast,” Lopez said. “When I did my turn, and I saw that he [Winchell] was right with me, I kicked so hard and pulled my arms so hard. And all the pain . . . I just forgot about it. I knew I had to win this.”

Joining Lopez in the relay victory were juniors Daniel Kim and Erik Birkelbach and freshman Gonny Shimura.

Irvine also won the 200 breaststroke relay in 1:56.02 and the 200 backstroke relay ((1:39.58).

In other relays, Villa Park’s Kyle Baumgarner turned in a blistering 21.44 leadoff swim in the 6x50 freestyle relay to give the Spartans the lead, which they kept throughout the race for the win. Villa Park dropped more than a second from its preliminary swim to win in 2:17.60.

Newhall Hart won the first relay, the 4x100-yard individual medley relay in 1:39.01 and also the 4x100 freestyle relay in 3:12.71. Crescenta Valley edged Irvine in the 4x50 butterfly relay, winning in 1:38.80, .16 ahead of the Vaqueros.