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Santa Margarita’s boys and girls swimming teams will aim to extend their record-setting seasons this week at the CIF State championships, which return after a two-year absence caused by the pandemic.

The three-day event at the Clovis Olympic Swim Complex at Clovis West High begins Thursday with girls and boys diving. The swimming prelims follow Friday at 1 p.m. with the finals set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Santa Margarita’s boys and girls combined to set three Orange County records and one national record last week en route to sweeping the Division 1 titles at the CIF-SS championships in Mission Viejo.

The Eagles mentioned the state meet at the section finals and are expected to be nearly full-strength in Fresno.

“Really great night for us and we’ll see what we can do next week (in Fresno),” Santa Margarita co-coach Rich Blanc said after the Division 1 finals. “The internal competition we have on the team is just such tremendous. It kind of makes everybody want to swim faster.”

Santa Margarita’s girls claimed their second consecutive state title in 2019, the last time the meet was held.

The girls are seeded first in nine of the 11 swimming events, including the 400-yard freestyle relay. At the Division 1 finals, Santa Margarita broke its own national high school independent record in the event with a time of 3 minutes, 18.22 seconds.

The Eagles’ boys are seeded first in the 200 medley relay. They set the county record in winning the Division 1 title in 1:30.08.

The county’s depth this week extends beyond Santa Margarita.

Laguna Hills’ Tona Zinn, a senior bound for Northwestern, is seeded first in the 200 individual medley and breaststroke. San Juan Hills junior David Schmitt is seeded first in the butterfly.

Cal-bound Matthew Chai of Sonora is seeded second to Loyola junior Rex Maurer in the 500 free.

Chai, the Division 2 champion at the section finals, owns the second-fastest 500 time in county history (4:15.91) while Maurer, the Division 1 champion, came within one second of the Grant Shoults’ national record for Santa Margarita (4:12.87) by blazing a 4:13.90 last week.

In girls diving, San Juan Hills sophomore Taylor Fox and Fullerton junior Abigail Ekstrom are seeded first-second. The diving points count toward team totals.

SAN JUAN HILLS GOLFER WINS CIF REGIONAL

San Juan Hills sophomore Brad Smolinski shot a 68 at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills to edge Corona del Mar senior Heman Liang by one stroke to win the CIF Southern individual regional championship on Monday.

Servite senior Jack Cantlay carded a 70 to finish third.

The trio were among several county golfers who qualified at regionals for the CIF-SS individual championships May 19 at River Ridge Country Club in Oxnard.

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Junior Youseong Choi of Anaheim Discovery Christian shot a four-under par 66 to tie for second at the Northern regional at Los Robles Greens in Thousand Oaks.

Senior Nathan Tseng of Troy took fourth in the Central regional at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta.