Section Championships : Boys’ Swimming Preliminaries

Mike Picotte is the tonic Mira Mesa will need for its best finish at the San Diego Section team championship Saturday at Mt. Carmel High.

At the preliminaries at Mt. Carmel, Picotte handily won the 100- and 200-yard freestyles to qualify for Saturday’s finals.

Picotte is one of the top two swimmers competing in this meet. Picotte and Matt Buckley of Helix--winner of the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle--are expected to better their times in the finals.

“Mike hasn’t gone all out, I can tell you that,” Mira Mesa Coach Kim Yourchek said.

Top-seeded Picotte said that on a scale of one to 10, his effort rated about a four.

“I swam hard enough to make it,” he said.

“Make it” meant a top-eight finish to advance to the championship finals. The next eight advanced to the consolation finals.

Mira Mesa, winner of its first City Conference championship last week, is picked to finish behind Palomar champion Poway.

Said Yourchek: “The last time a city school won CIF was in 1977. This year we have a chance as a runner-up. It depends on what Poway does.”

Poway, Patrick Henry and Mira Mesa were the three teams that qualified the most (four) swimmers for the finals. Teams with three qualifiers were Mt. Carmel, University City, USDHS and Grossmont.

Picotte and Buckley were the only double winners, but Mike Hay of Patrick Henry (200 individual, 500 freestyle) and Tim Trapnell of University City (100 butterfly, 100 backstroke) placed second in two events each, and Sergio Monsalve of Bonita Vista (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke) and Mitch Kohlbecker of Valhalla (200 and 500 freestyles) finished third twice.

Preliminaries continue today at Mt. Carmel with the girls at 2 p.m.