SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Swimming

Grossmont's Lambrecht has game in 2K3

By Phillip Brents
Posted May 20, 2003

What began as doing tricks in the family pool has led Grossmont High junior Randin Lambrecht to the upper echelon of the San Diego Section diving ranks.

Lambrecht won this year’s Grossmont North League boys championship title with a career-best 11-dive score of 327.55 points to position himself as the second-ranked diver for Tuesday’s Division II finals at La Jolla High School. Warm-ups start at 2:30 p.m. Competition begins at 3 p.m.

Pictured at right: Grossmont's Randin Lambrecht with coaches Alexis Rogers and B.J. Lines.

Hilltop High junior Kyle Kovar returns to defend his division title. Lambrecht finished third behind since graduated Brian Singleton of Coronado in last year’s division finals.

Lambrecht may have come the farthest in the shortest period of time, however.

“We have our own diving board at home. But it’s more like a platform — there’s no spring. My parents would encourage me to do some dives for them. When I went to swim practice, I saw kids doing 1-1/2s on the board and I thought how neat it was and that I could do that,” he said.

Lambrecht joined the Foothillers dive team halfway through his freshman season and finished as the JV league champion with about eight dives down altogether.

“I was just kind of messing around. I never knew diving was a sport until I got into high school and saw kids doing it at practice,” he said.

By his sophomore year, Lambrecht had 11 dives down and began to flourish after competing for a club team based out of Grossmont College coached by Adam Bellistri called the Hominid Diving Club. He began performing dives from both the high board (three meters) and low board (one meter) for the Hominid Diving Club. Only the one-meter board is used for high school competition, however.

Lambrecht scored 282.25 points at last year’s CIF finals, topping his entry mark of 277.70 points after finishing second in the Grossmont North League finals.

“I had second as a goal. I believe the person who got second was from Coronado. He was strong. I was pretty sure Kyle would beat me. I was happy just to go to CIF,” Lambrecht said.

The Foothiller diver has continued to excel this season despite reduced practice time because of also holding down a job besides schoolwork. “I don’t get to practice as much as I want because I have a part-time job — only about four times a week instead of seven times a week,” he said.

Lambrecht finished second at last year’s league finals to West Hills’ B.J. Lines, who ironically is now his diving coach at Grossmont High. Lines competed concurrently at Grossmont College, where he was ranked among the top three divers in the Southern California region and top six in the state.

“I like seeing kids learn new dives and trying something new and then watching them progress. if they keep progressing, they should do pretty well in CIF,” Lines said.

Lambrecht’s repertoire now includes about 20 dives from the high board and 25 dives from the low board. He was completed a 2-1/2 pike on the high board.

“My first year my hardest dive was 1-1/2 tuck on the low board with a 1.6 degree of difficulty,” he said.

He counted a double front tuck with a 2.2 degree of difficulty and an inward 1-1/2 tuck with a likewise 2.2 degree of difficulty among the most difficult dives he performed last year. This year’s dive card has progressed to include a 2-1/2 tuck with a 2.4 degree of difficulty.

“I’m working on twisters, front 1 1/.2s with two twists. I’m hoping to have that by CIF,” he said.

His wish list for this season included 2-1/2 pike on the low board delivered from the front position as well as 1-1/2 somersault with 1-1/2 twists and a front 1-1/2 somersault with two twists.

He was scoring well early in the season with an inward 1-1/2 somersault from the tuck position.

“If you’re diving for high school, you have to be able to get an 11-dive list. You can qualify for CIF but with club it takes a lot more dedication. If your coaches tell you that you’re ready to do things, you got to put your fears behind you and trust them and think that you can do it. You’ve got to believe in yourself,” he said.

Lambrecht said getting as much height off the board as possible is important in successfully executing a diversified dive list.

“If you can get high off the board, you can do just about anything,” he said.

Lambrecht showed he was serious about improvement this season right from the start. He scored 182 points for six dives in Grossmont’s season-opening victory against El Cajon Valley and topped that with a score of 188.1 points in the Foothillers’ next meet, a non-league encounter against Metro Conference power house Bonita Vista. The 188.1 points established a new career mark.

Diving notebook
Grossmont senior Megan Rohrs finished second in the North League championships with 218.61 points, followed in third place by Foothiller newcomer Melissa Smith with 217.35 points. The winning mark, posted by Santana, was 221.85 points.

Swimming notebook
Grossmont swept both the boys and girls ends of the North League championship meet May 17. The Foothiller boys out-pointed runner-up West Hills 393 to 252 with Santana finishing third with 199 points, followed by El Cajon Valley with 197 points and El Capitan with 137 points. Grossmont scored a meet-best 464 points to top the runner-up Wolf Pack i(314 points) n the girls meet with Santana finishing third with 231 points, El Capitan in fourth place with 186 points and El Cajon Valley in fifth place with 95 points.

The Foothillers won eight events in both the boys and girls competition to score their lopsided victories.

In the boys meet, David Lefstein captured the 200 individual medley (2:09.37) and 500 freestyle (5:09.81) while freshman Matt Clements won the 100 butterfly (56.84) while taking second place in the 200 freestyle (1:52.63). Other Grossmont first-place finishes went to Billy DeRidder in the 50 freestyle (23.21) and John Tolosko in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.43). The Foothillers also won the meet-opening 200 medley relay and meet-closing 400 freestyle relay. Randin Lambrecht accounted for the team’s eighth win in the diving competition. For West Hills, Tim Fuller won the 100 freestyle (47.87) and 200 freestyle (1:46.21).

In the girls meet, Lauren Clements led the Foothillers with victories in the 500 freestyle (26.31) and 100 butterfly (1:00.07) while teammate Mary Westervelt was also a multiple event winner by capturing the 100 freestyle (55.93) and 100 backstroke (1:03.49). Kate Thornton (2:19.21, 200 IM) and Danielle Peebles (200 freestyle, 1:58.75) rounded out Grossmont’s individual event first-place finishes. The Foothillers won two of the three relay events, timing 1:58.09 in the 200 medley relay and 1:49.65 in the 200 freestyle relay.