Sierra picks up 4th straight state men's title; Santa Barbara another first time women's swim/dive crown
Complete Meet Results l Complete Team Scores
COSTA MESA - One program continued its current dominance on the sport, while another program took over on top of the mountain as Sierra College picked up its fourth straight men's crown, while Santa Barbara City College earned its first state title for the women on Day 3 of the 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championships, held Saturday at the Orange Coast College Aquatics Pavilion.
For the Wolverines, it was business as usual for the fourth consecutive season as they finished with 633.5 points, well ahead of state runner-up, Orange Coast, who had 523. The rest of the top-five include Mt. San Antonio (318), Riverside (248) and Cuesta (236).
El Camino sophomore Mia Park sets her mark as one of the greatest swimmers in the history of women's swimming as she is Co-Swimmer of the Meet for the second straight year, wins six gold medals, and sets a state meet record in the mile swim (see recaps below).
"We are fully blessed with an athletic department that fully supports what we do and we not have a culture in place where the men show up with common goals and we do what we can to achieve them," Sierra coach Chris Breitbart said.
"We're also blessed to have tremendous athletes and great coaches and it's awesome when something like this comes together. Coaching staff and support staff here at Orange Coast did an amazing job of running an amazing state championship. We knew we needed to perform really well against a really talented and deep OCC team. Our guys just really responded this weekend and I'm super proud of them."
For the Vaqueros, they took over the top spot, previously held by Santa Monica College last year, and finished with a staggering 460 points, lapping the rest of the field that included runner-up Santa Rosa (281.5) and third-place Long Beach City (255). El Camino (248) and Sierra (229) rounding out the top-five.
SBCC becomes the second straight Western State Conference team to win a title and the second consecutive "newbie" to win, making it just eight schools ever to accomplish a state women's crown.
"I've got a really special group of kids, who worked really hard this year," Santa Barbara head coach Chuckie Roth said. "They bought into the program and they bought into each other, making each other better each day. Our kids don't have a ton of swimming background – most are water polo athletes – but they're relentless, they're gritty and support each other in and out of the water. It's been incredible."
In all, five state records were set here at OCC this weekend, including two more on Saturday from Park in the 1,650 freestyle and Santa Monica's Ema Klimauskas in the 200 butterfly.
2024 State Swim Meet Awards
Men's Swimmer of the Meet: Grayson Davies, Grossmont
Women's Co-Swimmers of the Meet: Mia Park, El Camino, Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino
Men's Performance of the Meet: OCC 200 Free Relay State Record (Gideon Stemmons, Ryan Xu, Dylan Bartino, Mason Parker)
Women's Performance of the Meet: Mia Park, El Camino, 1650 Free State Record
Men's Swim Coach of the Year: Chris Breitbart, Sierra Women's Swim Coach of the Year: Chuckie Roth, Santa Barbara
Co-Men's Divers of the Year: Easton Farmer, Sequoias; Ayden Jacobus, Ventura
Women's Diver of the Year: Rachel Choi, American River, champion in both 1-meter and 3-meter boards
Co-Men's Diving Coaches of Year: Jude Dizon, Sequoias, Ann Wright, Ventura Women's Diving Coach of Year: Dede Crayne, American River
WOMEN'S FINAL TOP 10 STANDINGS: 1.Santa Barbara 460, 2. Santa Rosa 281.5, 3. Long Beach 255, 4. El Camino 248, 5. Sierra 229, 6. Mt. San Antonio 217, 7. Orange Coast 215, 8. West Valley 204, 9. Diablo Valley 189, 10. Foothill 182.
MEN'S FINAL TOP 10 STANDINGS: 1. Sierra 633.50, 2. Orange Coast 523, 3. Mt San Antonio 318, 4 Riverside City 248, 5 Cuesta 236, 6. El Camino 234, 7. Golden West, 229. 8 Las Positas 199, 9. American River 195, 10. Diablo Valley 178. 50.
Saturday, May 4
Event #29: W-1,650 freestyle: Champion— STATE RECORD – Mia Park, El Camino, 17:04.63, 2. Caroline Oates, Santa Barbara, 17:34.42, Emma Marsalek, Allan Hancock, 17:55.82. The legend of Mia Park continued to grow on Day 3 of the State Meet as she not only earns her sixth gold medal in her two-year career, she sets a state meet record by the slimmest of margins, taking the record away from Golden West College's Jade Morton, who set the record back in 2012. With the victory all but won, it was a matter of finding that extra pep for a state record, which she accomplished by just .07 seconds.
Event #30: M-1,650 freestyle: Champion— Samuel Slezak, Mt. San Antonio, 15:35, 93, 2. Nolan Chomin, Golden West, 15:36.73, 3. Troy Quintana, Sierra, 15:58.25. In a race that gives so much time to spread out, the top two duo of Slezak and Chomin left the rest of the field in their wake, but stayed close to each other for the entire mile. Finally, Slezak managed to hold off his GWC nemesis and touched the wall less than a second ahead of Chomin for the gold medal, bettering his silver medal he won at the State Meet a year ago.
Event #31: W-200 backstroke: Champion—Noemi Bravo-Guzman, Allan Hancock, 2:02.88, 2. Olivia Khan, Foothill, 2:05.85, 3. Erin Otsuki, Santa Barbara, 2:06.76. It was a start-to-finish lead for Bravo-Guzman, who entered as the top-qualifier for the event and finished exactly the same way. A solid effort for Khan, who swam her best time in the event all season, but went up against a powerhouse in Bravo-Guzman.
Event #32: M-200 backstroke: Champion— Greyson Davies, Grossmont, 1:48.33, 2. Tony Montes, Long Beach, 1:51.08, 3. Tyler Natrass, Sierra, 1:51.34. With GWC's Thomas Kelly the front-runner in the event, it took three solid performances to surpass the Rustler standout and Davies led the way with an impressive outing in the backstroke, who led from the start and did not let up. It was a dogfight for the silver, but in the end, Montes out-touched Natrass at the wall for the second spot, giving Natrass the bronze, just .58 ahead of Kelly's time of 1:51.92.
Event #33: W-100 freestyle: Champion—Maddie Myers, Santa Barbara, 51.36, 2. Camille Seiley, Grossmont, 51.92, 3. Lilliana Noriega, LA Valley, 52.16. What looked to be an extremely competitive 100 freestyle lived up to the hype as Myers used a fantastic final 50 to catch, then, pass Myers, winning the gold by over a half-second. Noriega trimmed 1.16 off of her preliminary time to earn the bronze from Lane 2.
Event #34: M-100 freestyle: Champion— Gideon Stemmons, Orange Coast, 44.43, 2. Christopher Nihart, Sierra, 45.17, Yousef Nahali, Riverside, 45.53. Another event, another gold medal for Stemmons, who, in his first State Meet, is running out of room on his neck. With the win, the Pirate freshman now has four goals and a bronze total with relay and individual honors. Nihart and Nahali and several others were right in the thick of things, but it was Stemmons who led from the start and didn't let up.
Event #35: W-200 breaststroke: Champion— Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino, 2:18.62, 2. Julia Reed, Saddleback, 2:21.09, 3. Madeleine West, Santa Rosa, 2:21.12. It was Samayoa's race to lose and for the El Camino College freshman standout … she did not, leading from start to finish and earning an open-water win by 2.38 seconds over Saddleback's Reid and 2.50 seconds over SRJC's West. Saturday's 200 breaststroke win will look good next to her 100 breaststroke win from 24 hours before.
Event #36: M-200 breaststroke: Champion-- Deklan Heinzen, Sierra, 1:58.72, 2. Michael Hansel, Sierra, 1:59.76, 3. Cayden Pitzer, American River, 2:01.18. Heinzen, the 100 breaststroke champ from Friday, came in with the fastest prelim time and he carried that mojo into the finals, where he led from the first touch of the wall to the last, fighting off an early push from bronze medalist Pitzer and a late push from silver medalist and teammate, Hansen. The Sierra duo were the lone sub-2-minute finishers and performed the best when it mattered most.
Event #37: W-200 butterfly: Champion— STATE RECORD -- Ema Klimauskas, Santa Monica, 2:01.99, 2. Elleanna Ramos, Mt. San Antonio, 2:08.16, 3. Sky Griffin, Diablo Valley, 2:13.18. The bar continues to rise in the 200 fly as Kilmauskas shattered last year's state meet record of 2:03.76, set by Palomar's Emma Hart. Klimauskas, the 100 butterfly champ as well, was touching one wall while most of the field was touching the other and finished with a 6.17 gap over Mt. SAC's Ramos (silver) and an 11.17 gap over DVC's Griffin (bronze).
Event #38: M-200 butterfly: Champion— Aidan Thompson, Sierra, 1:49.53, 2. Nathaniel D'Aloisio, Long Beach, 1:50.07, 3. Genoa Nixon, Sierra, 1:51.97. In one of the closest races of the evening, it was a dead heat after 150 yards between the trio of Thompson, D'Aloisio and Nixon, but in the end, Nixon held off his two nearest competitors to take the gold by .54 over D'Alosio. Nixon, the 100 butterfly state champ, added a bronze to his collection.
Event #39: W-400 freestyle relay: Champion— Santa Barbara (Erin Otsuki, Caroline Oates, Lily Carrick, Maddie Myers), 3:31.68, 2. Orange Coast, 3:36.83, 3. El Camino, 3:37.70. The Vaqueros put the cherry on top of the sundae with a convincing win in the final race of the evening to cap off their team state victory. SBCC took over on the final 25 yards of the third leg as Carrick caught her ECC and OCC opponents and from there Myers left the remaining anchor swimmers in her wake. OCC's Paige Woodside, Kiley Kawai, Gia Cadiz and Rylie Fox earned a hard-fought silver, holding off El Camino for the runner-up spot by .87.
Event #40: M-400 freestyle relay: Champion—Orange Coast (Gideon Stemmons, Masa Araki, Ryan Xu, Mason Parker), 3:01.33, 2. Riverside, 3:02.36, 3. Sierra, 3:02.43. Pirates love relays and for Orange Coast College, the foursome of Stemmons, Araki, Xu and Parker wrapped up the schools fifth state title out of six relay events. Parker's 45.15 final 50 helped give OCC the lead for good, capping off the State Meet with a championship for the hosts. Stemmons wraps up his first year as a Pirate with six medals, including five golds and a bronze in both individual and relay competition.
(Release by Tony Altobelli, 3C2A State Swim Meet SID)