Panchak named Co-Swimmer of the Year at OEC Championships
FULLERTON -- Sophomore standout Jonathan Panchak was named the Orange Empire Conference's Co-Swimmer of the Year after his fine performance at last weekend's 2016 OEC Swim and Dive Championships, held at Fullerton College.
Panchak, who helped OCC to a third-place team finish at the event (599 points), earned three first-place individual times and was a key contributor to four top-three relay teams for the Pirates.
In the individual medley events, Panchak swept both events, winning the 200 IM with a time of 1 minute, 50.22 seconds and the 400 IM with a time of 4:00.74, more than seven seconds ahead of the field.
But the Narbonne HS grad saved his best performance for the 100 breaststroke where he set a new OEC Meet record with a time of 55 seconds.
Panchak also helped Coast to a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay as well as third-place marks in the 200 free relay, the 400 medley relay and 800 free relay.
Other strong Coast performances were turned in by Sooud Altayyar in the 200 free (2nd, 1:40.75) and 500 free (2nd, 4:40.3), Cory Nguyen in the 100 back (2nd, 51.83), Diego Pabalan in the 200 back (3rd, 1:53.44) and 100 back (3rd, 51.92) and Christian Estiamba-Low in the 100 butterfly (3rd, 51.9).
Up next for the Pirates is the 2015 California Community College Athletic Association State Swimming and Diving Championships, held at East Los Angles College, from May 5-7, beginning at 10 a.m. each day.
