SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Swimming

Hilltop's Kovar on record-setting pace

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, May 8, 2003 -- He may not be a machine that can repeat each function exactly as it was done before but Hilltop High junior Kyle Kovar is as close to perfection as humanly possible when bounding off the diving board.

Kovar won last year’s San Diego Section Division II diving championship after finishing runner-up to since graduated Alex Soto of Chula Vista the previous week at the Metro Conference finals. A two-time Metro dive champion, Soto went on to earn All-CIF honors with a seventh place finish in the Division I competition.

The Hilltop diver appears ready to end this season strong.

Kovar issued what likely was more of a personal challenge early in the season by openly stating his intent to go after the school records in the event.

Bill Botger held the Hilltop record for six dives at 225.75 points while Dan Kovar, Kyle’s father, held the school record for 11 dives at 425.75.

The records for both dive cards now reside in the same family since the younger Kovar — after overcoming some early season stumbling blocks — set the new school mark for six dives with a total of 226.95 in the Lancers’ April 30 dual meet against Castle Park at the Loma Verde pool.

Kyle is now shooting for ownership of both records before he graduates next year.
“I don’t see why he can’t go after it this year,” said Dan Kovar, who serves as dive coach for South Bay League champion Mar Vista.

Kovar racked up 334.45 points in winning last year’s Division II championship. He followed his school record performance by finishing second at last Saturday’s Rancho Buena Vista Invitational at Palomar College with 342.85 points. RBV sophomore Aaron Stinson — fourth at last year’s Division I finals — won the meet with 349.75 points.

The Hilltop diver wrapped up his second consecutive undefeated league season on Wednesday by out-pointing Chula Vista junior Bryan Flitcraft 208 to 182.

Kovar has been focusing more on strength training this season in order to execute more difficult dives and drive up the scores in the process.

“I’m pushing harder this year than last year. I’m trying to get all my dives in,” he said.

Since last season he has already added seven new dives to his repertoire. He has placed an emphasis on learning dives in general that award a higher degree of difficulty and has started to master dives from the pike position as well as those from the tuck position.

“I’m going for dives that require more strength this year. There’s a lot of throws involved, a lot of work to perfect them,” he said. “The dives from the pike position look nice and score higher.”

His approach to mental preparation has also helped him mature on the board. “At the beginning of the season I was trying too hard. You can’t focus on one thing. You’ve just got to glide off the board and glide through the dive. If you think it is a practice dive it will all work out. Now I’m just having fun.”

Kovar opened the season by scoring 350.55 points to win the Santana Invitational. His highest scoring dives included an inward 1 1/2 pike, reverse pike, back dive from the tuck position and an inward pike.

“We are very proud of Kyle,” said Hilltop boys swim coach John Salts. “This is a record he has wanted for quite some time and he pulled it off. Now he can take the pressure off himself and go have some fun up there on the board. This is a record that he will no doubt add to and put out of reach for many years to come. Kyle will continue to amaze all of us with his future accomplishments.”

Salts described Kovar’s strengths as his pure athleticism and concentration. It also doesn’t hurt to have a father who was a record-setting diver in his own day as a live-in coach.

Largely because of the notoriety that the younger Kovar has achieved the past three years (he was named the Metro Diver of the Year as a freshman), the Hilltop dive team has become one of the largest in the county with nine regularly competing divers and a few more at the practice level, according to Salts.

The Metro Conference championship meet is next Friday, May 16, at Loma Verde pool, starting at 3 p.m.

Teammate Joe Olivarria (who finished second at the Santana Invitational) has already joined Kovar as a fellow qualifier for the upcoming Division II meet by meeting a pre-set point standard while teammates Sofia Murga and Alan Flores are very close to also qualifying.

“The team is excited to have this strong addition and feels it rounds out a solid program here at Hilltop,” Salts said.

Swim finals
The Metro Conference boys prelims are Wednesday, May 14, at Loma Verde pool, followed by the girls prelims on Thursday, May 15, also at 3 p.m. at the same site. The conference championship meet is Saturday, May 17, starting at 9:30 a.m. at Loma Verde pool.

Mar Vista captured the South Bay League boys dual meet swim title following its harrowing last-event 98-88 victory against Hilltop April 23 in Imperial Beach. Heading into the 100 backstroke event, the underdog but vastly improved Lancers held a two-point lead, with the lead swinging back to the Mariners’ favor by four points heading into the final two events. Hilltop needed to finish first and third in the final event of the day — the 400 freestyle relay — to upset the defending champions but the Lancers, having already used up the eligibility of their “A” relay team swimmers in other events, finished second and fourth to enable Mar Vista to repeat its championship.

Mar Vista extended its reign as girls dual meet champions after its 113-72 victory against Hilltop. The Mariners won 11 of 12 events in the meet.

Bonita Vista and Eastlake squared off for the Mesa League title Wednesday at Southwestern College, with the Barons winning.

Hilltop finished 7-2 in conference meets after sweeping Chula Vista. The Lancers won the boys meet 132-42 and captured the girls meet 146-42. The Spartans finished 4-6 overall.

Dive notepad

On the girls side, Samantha Womer returns to defend her conference title. She topped the field last year with 282.80 points. Bonita Vista’s Brittney Aland finished runner-up for the second consecutive year.

Womer has begun to attract a crowd around her as well. The Titans feature four front-line divers this season in Womer, Sarah and Ashley Perez. Sarah Perez competed last year for Bonita Vista.

Aland, who finished 10th at last year’s Division I championship meet, has not given up hope of catching Womer at next Friday’s league finals.

The Baron diver finished as the highest non-North County diver with a score of 285.50 points at last year’s division finals, besting Womer, who failed to advance past eight dives with 202.40 points.

Mar Vista junior Kim Forest is another championship contender after finishing ahead of Womer for second place at the Santana Invitational. Womer finished third in that meet, followed by teammates Sarah and Ashley Perez.

Dan Kovar called the Metro’s performance “phenomenal” at the meet, particularly its corps of female divers.

Aland may be among the more unique divers in the conference in that she has an extensive gymnastics background. In fact, she has competed concurrently on the school's gymnastics and dive teams last year.

"My schedule was really tight. I have to go from practice to practice," she said. .

She is finishing fourth year on the dive team. "It just looked fun. I tried it and liked it," she said.

Teammate Doug Schulz is hoping to nail down a CIF qualifying dive to finish his prep career. The upcoming conference finals could provide that. "The better the competition, the better it makes me want to perform," he said.

Aland concurs in that regard.

"Since starting the season, we've started to work toward harder dives," She said