A group of parents passed by as Hart High swim coach Steve Neale fingered through a packet of Tuesday’s results at Santa Clarita Aquatic Center.
“See you next week … I mean in two weeks,” one of them said to Neale.
Indeed, the Indians will have to try to carry any momentum gained from handily sweeping West Ranch in a Foothill League dual meet through next week’s spring break.
PHOTOS: Hart and West Ranch swim face off
“(We have) a lot of positive enthusiasm that we have to sustain through the dreaded spring break,” Neale said of no league meets next week. “Our breaststroker is in show choir so he’ll be in London. We have to try and keep that momentum through spring break then (the season) goes real fast, then it gets exciting.”
Hart (2-0 in Foothill) is aiming to build steam by the time it enters key Foothill League duals with Saugus and Valencia on April 20 and 26, respectively, and then Foothill League prelims and finals in early May.
The Indians looked strong Tuesday, with the boys winning 115-55 and the girls following suit, 116-54.
Individually, Stephanie Skarshaug doubled in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 butterfly for the Hart girls (2-0), while for the boys, Ryan Brimer and Adam Osowski each won two events for Hart, which will practice each day over the break in an attempt to avoid a letdown.
Osowski’s 200 and 500 freestyle races were both in CIF consideration times.
Brimer, Osowski, Emilio Santoyo and Jonathan Quick teamed up to swim a 400 free relay that was roughly six seconds off of an automatic CIF mark.
Skarshaug, Maxine Catig, Taryn Toledo and Megan Soto won the girls 200 medley relay in a consideration time of 1 minute, 55.34 seconds.
However, the West Ranch girls (0-2) won the other two relays.
The foursome of Angelene Estiandan, Reagan Nibarger, Tali Skabelund and Sophia Morici won the girls 200 free relay in 1:40.94 — .14 off of a CIF automatic mark.
The same four missed an automatic swim in the 400 free relay by just .94.
West Ranch coach Jeremy Anderson said West Ranch knew beating Hart — like the prospect of beating Valencia last week (Valencia swept the Cats) — was a tall task.
So the meets served as an opportunity to mold the lineup for optimum performance in the final three league meets against Saugus, Canyon and Golden Valley.
“After the first two meets, we have a good feel for where everyone fits into this lineup,” Anderson said, “and we’ll actually be able to field a pretty strong lineup against those schools.”
For the West Ranch boys (0-2), Darren Chang won the 50 free and Cade Brower took the 100 breaststroke. Hart’s Catig won the girls 100 backstroke in a consideration time of 1:00.60.
