SMC, Sierra women tied for 1st, OCC men sets record in 400 medley relay on Day 1 of State Swim Meet

Day 1, State Meet Complete Results l Photo Gallery

MONTEREY PARK - Santa Monica College scored two relay victories to help the Corsairs to tie Sierra for the team points lead in the women's standings on Day 1 of the 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championships held Thursday. 

Meanwhile, Orange Coast's men had a brilliant day of sprints, led by Ethan Smith, who then helped the Pirates break the state meet record in the 400-yard medley relay in 3:17.40. OCC snapped the 2015 record of Diablo Valley by .16 of a second. Smith earlier had one of the fastest 50 freestyles in state meet history in 19.81.

Sierra also has the lead in the men's standings with a commanding 220 points, 62 ahead of second-place OCC. 

The Wolverines nearly set a state meet record, missing by .11 to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:21.63.

WOMEN'S STANDINGS: T1. Santa Monica, Sierra 126, 3. Orange Coast 120, T4. Santa Rosa JC, Santa Barbara CC 90, 6. Riverside CC 78.5, 7. Palomar 78, 8. American River 56, 9. West Valley 50, 10. Sequoias 49. 

MEN'S STANDINGS: 1. Sierra 220, 2. Orange Coast 158, 3. Las Positas 107, T4. Palomar, Golden West, Mt. San Antonio 85, 7. Sequoias 79, 8. Riverside 64, 9. West Valley 48, 10. Cuesta 48. 

The following are event-by-event capsules:

THURSDAY, MAY 4

Event #1: W-200 freestyle relay: Champion--Santa Monica 1:39.89 (Risa Akatsu, Reva Reignier, Wilma Henriksson, Emily Lester), 2. Santa Barbara 1:39.40, 3. Orange Coast 1:39.45. A rematch of the Western State Conference championships saw the Corsairs' Lester come through in the anchor leg with a 23.92 second split to SBCC's 24.47 for the win by .84 of a second. The Vaqueros scored the siilver but just .05.
Event #2: M-200 freestyle relay: Champion--Sierra, 1:21.63 (Evan Terry, Jake Reuter, Christopher Nihart, Andrew Espinoza), 2. Orange Coast, 1:22.01, 3. Mt. San Antonio, 1:24.52. 1:23.98. In a near repeat of last year's race, Espinoza's 20.03 final leg was enough to beat OCC in a near state meet record time (just .11 off). The Pirates closer Ethan Smith had an explosive 19.63 to help his squad take silver again.
Event #3: W-500 freestyle: Champion--Mia Park, El Camino, 5:04.73, 2. Giselle Quinonez, Orange Coast, 5:07.09, 3. Maya Garcia-Hale, Grossmont, 5:13.71. Park swam to form as her opening 26.46 set the tone and her 30.93 closing split was also faster than the field in this distance free. Park took control by the 200-yard mark while Quinonez, last year's state champ, swam faster this year, but settled for the silver. 
Event #4: M-500 freestyle: Champion--Marcu Holunga, Las Positas, 4:35.09, 2. Tyler LeDet, Riverside, 4:36.77, 3. Deklan Heinzen, Sierra, 4:37.49. Holunga tried to shake LeDet, but the Tigers swimmer was stroke-for-stroke until Holunga turned on the after-burners with final splits of 27.89, 28.10, and then a fast 27.15 to close out this distance gold.
Event #5: W-200 individual medley: Champion--Courtney Seljeseth, De Anza, 2:07.05, 2. Emma Hart, Palomar, 2:07.21, 3. Risa Akatsu, Santa Monica, 2:10.72. Seljeseth's backstroke second leg of 37.30 was the back-breaker in helping her just edge Hart by .16. Hart had the best closing freestyle leg of 30.27. Last year's champion Akatsu settled for the bronze.
Event #6: M-200 individual medley: Champion--Alec Mortensen, West Valley, 1:49.56, 2. Jake Reuter, Sierra, 1:49.84, 3. Matthew Simpson, Orange Coast, 1:51.09. Reuter figured he was in good shape after a solid 23.46 opening butterfly, a field-best 26.66 in the backstroke, and held the lead after the breaststroke, but the defending champion was caught in the final seven yards by Mortensen for an exciting finish in the versatile stroke event. The Vikings swimmer went for broke on the final split with a 25.39 freestyle close to Reuter's 27.62 for the gold. Simpson of OCC had an identical time last year to take third (scored second in 2022).
Event #7: W-50 freestyle: Champion--Alessandra Fleischman, Palomar, 23.91, 2. Jillian Lambert, Sequoias, 24.01, 3. Camryn Bussey, Sierra, 24.16. The Comet soared here at the finish as Fleischman edged out defending champ Lambert by just .10. The Palomar swimmer won from the #6 lane and beat her top state time of 24.01 that she set coming into the meet. 
Event #8: M-50 freestyle: Champion--Ethan Smith, Orange Coast, 19.81, 2. 20.17, 2. Joshy Peters, Sequoias, 20.31, 3. Sullivan Moore, Long Beach, 20.58. Smith tried his best to break the state meet record and came up .23 short. Still Smith picked up his second straight sprint state title and beat his time from 2002 by .36. He foreshadowed his speedy 50 with a 19.97 top prelims mark. 
Event #9: W-400 medley relay: Champion--Santa Monica 3:53.89 (Reignier, Henriksson, Ema Kilmauskas, Lester), 2. Santa Barbara, 4:03.55, 3. Sierra, 4:04.47. It wasn't Secretariat in the Belmont but it felt like it as the Corsairs won by nearly 10 seconds faster than second-place SBCC. Henriksson's breaststroke leg (1:04.48)and Kilmauskas' butterfly (56.92) made it easy for anchor Lester to extend things to the finish.
Event #10: M-400 medley relay: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion--Orange Coast 3:17.40 (Tatsuki Inoue, Simpson, Smith, Mason Parker), 2. Sierra 3:19.48, 3. Mt. San Antonio 3:24.37. Smith's butterfly leg of 46.51 was the catalyst and Parker's closing 45.72 freestyle allowed the Pirates to break an 8-year-old record in this relay. 
Event #11:W-1-meter board: Champion--Maia Chase, Santa Rosa, 228.60 points, 2. Lia Borja, Orange Coast, 221.25, 3. Laurel Plewe, Sierra, 206.5. Chase used her second and fifth dives to be the difference in taking the short board title. She scored 49.5 points on an inward 1-1/2 somersault tuck, then picked up 46.2 points on a forward 1-1/2 somersault 1 twist free. Borja, the SoCal champion, took the silver with her best a 42.5 points on a back 1 somersault 1-1/2 twist free. Plewe needed a great final dive for 46.2 points on an inward 1-1/2 somersault tuck to grab the bronze.
Event #12: M-3-meter board: Champion--Donovan Taylor, Palomar, 260.35 points. 2. Tony Arteaga, San Joaquin Delta, 238.90, 3. Ty Hunt, San Diego Mesa, 224.75. Scoring more than 67 points higher than a year ago, Taylor became a 2-time state champ on the high board with powerful opening and closing dives. He scored 52.65 on an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck, then closed out a brilliant community college run by nailing a back 1-1/2 somersault 2-1/2 twist in totaling 57.4 points. Arteaga had three 51-plus point dives, but a rough opening dive gave Taylor enough breathing room. Arteaga scored 54 points on his fifth dive--an inward 2-1/2 somersault tuck. Seven divers scored 200 or more points after no one reached that in 2022.

Release by Robert Lewis, for the 3C2A-state meet SID