Panchak breaks, re-breaks state meet record for Pirates

LOS ANGELES -- Jonathan Panchak set a new meet record in the 100-yard breaststroke -- TWICE -- to lead the way for the Orange Coast College men's swim team on Friday after Day 2 of the California Community College Athletic Association State Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by East Los Angeles College.

Panchak blazed through the pool during the prelims and broke a 10-year-old mark with a time of 54.50 seconds. But still with a little extra in the gas tank, he went out fast and never looked back, breaking his own record time with a gold medal performance of 54.35 seconds. Sierra's Alex Shibata placed second (56.31), while Santa Rosa's Jesse Schmidt (57.24) finished third.

Panchak earned OCC's lone gold medal of Day 2, but the Pirates still held their own with the best in the state and maintained their fourth-place position with a team score of 257 points, trailing Sierra College with 377.5 points. 

In the 200 medley relay, it was a battle to the end between OCC, Diablo Valley and Sierra as all three teams were within a half-second of each other through the first 150 yards. In the end, defending champion DVC out-touched the other three schools with a time of 1:31.3, followed by OCC (1:32.35) and Sierra (1:32.59), giving the silver medal to the Coast foursome of Panchak, Diego Pabalan, Christian Estiamba and Alex Furlong.

In one of the closest races of the afternoon, Sooud Altayyar, Sierra's Slava Illin and GWC's Chadd Maurer battled it out in the 200 freestyle and in the end, Altayyar earned a hard-fought silver medal with a time of 1:39.12.

In the 400 individual medley OCC's Tyler Connors fought off a hard charge from Las Positas' Emil Graversen and earned a bronze medal with a time of 4:04.63. 

In the last relay race of the evening, the Pirate foursome of Panchak, Connors, Pabalan and Altayyar battled back to edge Golden West and earned a bronze medal with a time of 6:49.47.

The final day of the State Meet will take place on Saturday at ELAC, with the finals kicking off at 4 p.m.