COD's tennis triple crown Corse, Comet swimmer Hart are April SIA State AOTMs
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
SPORTS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION
APRIL STATE ATHLETES OF THE MONTH
WOMEN
WOMEN
Emma Hart, Palomar College, swimming, freshman
Hart was a true Comet in the pool as she won all three of her events in the 100, 200-yard butterfly and 200 individual medley at the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference Championships in April to receive Co-Swimmer of the Year honors. At the 3C2A State Meet, Hart put on a performance that didn't earn her a meet award but put her in the history books. She shattered two state meet records in winning the gold in the 100 and 200 fly events. In the 100 butterfly, she first broke the record with a 55.30 seconds swim in the prelims, then destroyed that mark in the finals in 54.82. Then in the 200 butterfly, she shattered an 8-year-old state record with a 2:03.76 time. Her late push at the wall was just enough to grab the new record by just .02 of a second.
MEN
Joseph Corse, College of the Desert, tennis, freshman
Corse became the 11th player in the 61-year history of the championships to win the state Triple Crown by helping COD to the program's third consecutive 3C2A team title, then winning both the individual singles and doubles crowns (with teammate Eita Ishikawa). In the team finals win over American River, Corse won both his #3 singles and #1 doubles matches in a 5-0 Desert victory. In individual singles, Corse swept teammate Hernan Olivas, 6-4, 6-0 in the finals. In doubles, he completed his trio of titles by rallying with Ishikawa to defeat the Ventura duo of Jinsei Tajima and Philemon Jabin, 4-6, 6-2, taking the tiebreaker in points, 10-4. Corse helped his squad to an 18-1 season
Release by Robert Lewis, CCCSIA Executive Board