Pirate Men set records and win Pasadena Invitational

PASADENA -- With seven wins and three meet records set, the Orange Coast College men's swim team captured the 2018 Pasadena College Invitational this past weekend with a team score of 927 points.

Golden West College, which had won the previous three Pasadena Invitational meets, finished second with 821.5 points, followed by Mt. San Antonio (447), Diablo Valley (426.5), Pasadena (348.5), Santa Monica (217), El Camino (140), Chaffey (118.5), Saddleback (106), Ventura (96), Cypress (74) and College of the Canyons (36).

Coast set a pair of relay records as well as one individual record at the meet, highlighted by the 800-yard freestyle relay foursome of Hayden Hemmens, Dawson Sloan, Michael Jones and Donny Hadden, who shattered the previous top mark of 6:56.2 (GWC, 2017) with a winning time of 6:52.24.

Sloan, Jones, Hayden Hemmens and Reece Hemmens then took down the top time in the 400 free relay (3:07.63 in 2015 by Golden West) with a time of 3:04.15. In fact, that time eclipsed the previous pool record of 3:07.4, set by Cuesta College back in 2002.

Showing the depth of the Pirates, OCC's "B" team of Hadden, Akili Allen, Jace Hong and Christian Estiamba finished second in that race with a time of 3:09.42.

Another relay victory was turned in by the Pirate forsome of Sloan, Jones, Hadden and Reece Hemmons, who took home the gold in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:23.76.

Reece Hemmens picked up a meet record time in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.1, besting the previous top time of 46.18, held by Zhen Teo in 2017. In fact, Coast finished 1-2-3-4-5 in that race as Reece Hemmens was followed closely to the wall by Hadden (46.2), Jones (46.21), Sloan (46.67) and Allen (46.91).

Hayden Hemmens picked up a pair of individual wins for the Pirates, taking the top spot in the 500 free (4:36.81) and the 200 free (1:40.57), edging out Sloan (1:44.09) for first place in that event.

It was a 1-3 finish for the Pirates in the 50 free as Jones dashed to the wall and touched first with a time of 20.9, while Sloan (21.17) took third.

The Pirates will now have two weeks to prepare for their upcoming meet, the Orange Empire Conference championships, hosted by Riverside City College, on April 19-21.