Coast men finish third at OEC Championships
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The Orange Coast College men's swim team took on the best in the Orange Empire Conference and the Pirates' squad finished third overall at the 2017 OEC Swim/Dive Championships, hosted by Golden West College, this past weekend.
OCC finished with 548 team points, trailing only host GWC (849) and Riverside City College (782). Cypress College (449) and Saddleback College (314) round out the top-five.
Coast's relay teams earned a pair of third-place times to highlight Day 1 of the three-day event. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of Danny Hadden, Parker Evans, Gabriele Simonti and Jacob Adams battled a tight, four-team battle and earned the bronze with a time of 1 minute, 25.69 seconds.
In the 400 medley relay, the squad of Hadden, Evans, Adams and Daniel Herrera took 10 seconds off of their prelim time and finished third with a time of 3:30.33.
On Day 2, Hadden, who finished fourth in the 50 free (20.85) and had the fastest prelim time in the 100 butterfly, battled RCC's Lazar Raca down to the final stroke and the OCC standout settled for the silver medal with a time of 50.14, just behind Lazar's 49.8.
In the 800 free relay, the team of Hadden, Herrera, Evans and Luke Heydorff nearly broke the 7-minute mark and took home the bronze medal with a time of 7:01.64.
On Day 3, Herrera, who posted the fastest prelim time in the 200 back (1:56.44), took home the bronze with a finals time of 1:56.98.
Hadden kept adding to his medal count with a second-place time of 45.38 in the 100 free, while in the 200 breast, Adams earned the bronze with a time of 2:09.07.
The Pirates will prepare for the 2017 California Community College Athletic Association State Swimming Championships, hosted by East Los Angeles College, beginning on Thursday, May 4 at 9 a.m.
