COC NOTEBOOK: HART SWIMMERS MAKE BIG SPLASH.

Byline: Heather Gripp Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Christine Castellano earned all-conference honors as a water polo player for College of the Canyons in the fall. Now, she's showing the Cougars what she's really good at. The freshman is the standout of the women's swim team.

Castellano began the swim season by breaking the school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.19 at the Mt. SAC Invitational. In last week's Western State Conference meet against Santa Monica, she finished first in the 200 individual medley (2:15.40) and 500 freestyle (5:35.02).

Castellano, a Hart High product, combines with Pam Milner to make the Cougars a threat in which the coastal schools usually dominate the conference. COC's win in the 200 medley relay and Milner's win in the 100 breast stroke kept the Cougars within 11 points in last week's loss to Santa Monica.

Another Hart graduate, Derek Ervin, is one of the bright spots for the COC men's team. Ervin's victory (23.68) in the 50 free was the Cougars' lone first-place finish in a 74-28 loss to Santa Monica. He also placed second in the 100 free at the same meet.

--Strength and conditioning clinic: Coaches, trainers and athletes have a chance to learn how to enhance athletic performance when experts on the topic are part of COC's Building Better Athletes clinic on Saturday. Among those scheduled to participate are Jim Liston, director of strength and conditioning for the Galaxy, and Eric Burkhardt, head strength and conditioning coach at UC Irvine. Doctor Tom Storer, a professor from UCLA's school of medicine, will also be on hand.

The 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. event will be broken into eight hour-long sessions covering a variety of subjects ranging from the effect of nutritional supplements on athletic performance to techniques in developing agility, speed and quickness.

The cost is $90 and includes a light breakfast and lunch. The clinic fulfills seven hours of NSCA and NATA continuing education credit.

Information and registration: [phone].

--A Daily change: Being on the baseball team represented a change of plans for sophomore multisport athlete Jason Daily, who intended to focus on football. When he returned to the baseball team in January, the Cougars inherited a returning All-WSC starter. However, Daily is no longer starting, and he hasn't posted all-conference-quality numbers.

``He came to us late from football and he tried to come back too strong,'' COC coach Chris Cota said. ``We decided it'd be better to work him back in relief. He could still end up being one of our starters.''

Through 13 1/3 innings, Daily was 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA.

--An upward swing: The softball team's inconsistent season got back on the positive track with an 11-3 victory over Santa Monica on Tuesday. The win improved the defending WSC champion Cougars to 4-4 in conference play. COC was 9-11 overall entering Thursday's rematch with the Corsairs.

Amanda DeFusco, Nicole Moses, Carly Caldaronello and Rian Standley were all batting better than .400.