Pirate men take fourth at Pasadena Invitational
PASADENA -- The Orange Coast College men's swim team took on some the top swimmers in the state at the 2017 Pasadena City College Invitational and at the conclusion of the three-day event, Coast finished fourth overall with 417.5 points.
Coast finished ahead of 12 other schools along the way and trailed only Golden West, Mt. San Antonio and Diablo Valley for the team top spot.
It was a productive weekend for freshman Donny Hadden, who notched three third-place finishes out of three individual races. He took the bronze in the 50-yard freestyle (21.59 seconds), in the 100 butterfly (51.57) and the 100 free (41.36) and also was a part of three relay teams that each cracked the top-three.
In the 200 free relay, Hadden joined Luke Heydorff, Daniel Herrera and Parker Evans and led the Pirates to a second-place time of 1:44.48. In the 800 free relay, it was Hadden, Herrera, Evans and Gabriele Simonti and again, Coast took home the silver with a time of 7:15.37. Finally, in the 400 free relay, Hadden, Herrera, Simonti and Heydorff helped Coast to a third-place time of 3:14.38.
Herrera capped off his busy weekend with a solid second-place time of 1:59.2 in the 200 backstroke, helping Coast to rack up even more points in the competition.
In the diving events, freshman standout Cole Gerard performed well in both the 1-meter (191.25 points) and 3-meter (178.30 points), taking second place overall in both events.
Gerrard and the rest of the OCC dive team will compete at the Southern California Regionals, set for Friday and Saturday at El Camino College. The swimmers AND divers will return to action on Thursday, April 20 at the Orange Empire Conference championships, hosted by Golden West College, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
