Pirates off to strong state at CCCAA Swim Championships
MONTEREY PARK -- The best of the best have made their way to East Los Angeles College for the 2022 California Community College Athletic Association State Swim/Dive Championships and after Day 1, several members of the Orange Coast College men's and women's teams are setting the pace.
Through six events, the OCC women lead the way with 150 points, followed by Sierra College (121 points), Long Beach (87), San Joaquin Delta (70) and Santa Monica (68). On the men's side, Coast is neck-and-neck with Sierra, who leads with 167 points. OCC (147) is second, followed by Cuesta (118), American River (99) and Diablo Valley (97).
Day 1 saw the Pirates claim four state titles, with each team winning two.
For the OCC women, the Pirates picked up the gold in the 500-yard freestyle, courtesy of an inspired performance by Giselle Quinonez. The Pirate standout saved her best race for last as she pulled away from the field and touched the wall first with a winning time of 5 minutes, 8.67 seconds, a full 11 seconds off of her prelim time. Race favorite Marie Lucquet of West Valley College finished second with a time of 5:13.77, followed by Santa Barbara City's Ensley Letterman (5:19.06).
Fellow Pirate, Tatsuki Inouye followed Quinonez's performance and conquered the men's 500 free with a winning time of 4:33.52. After jumping out to the lead, Inouye never gave the rest of the field an opportunity and showed his endurance with a final-leg split of 26.68 to win by nearly four seconds. Runner-up went to Max Pecile (Allan Hancock, 4:37.07), followed by Timothy Godin (Palomar, 4:37.99).
In the men's 50 free, it was a 1-2-3 battle between top-seeds Ethan Smith (OCC), Lucas Esenwein (Cuesta) and Andrew Espinosa (Sierra) and when the water calmed down, it was Smith on top for the Pirates with a time of 20.17, edging out Esenwein (20.61) and Espinosa (20.7) for the gold medal.
OCC's final championship took place in the women's 400 medley relay, where the foursome of Quinonez, Alaire Thomas, Yuuri Yoshikawa and Sude Yilmazturk) blew away the field with a winning time of 4:04.84, followed by Sierra (4:09.09), and Long Beach (4:12.06). Yoshikawa swam a 1:08.57 in the breaststroke leg and that put OCC in front. Quinonez final 55.18 anchor leg allowed OCC to cruise to victory.
Other top-three performances for the Pirates were in the women's 200 free relay (2nd, 1:40.27), men's 200 free relay (2nd, 1:22.66), men's 200 individual medley (Matthew Simpson, 2nd, 1:51.09; Andrew Leong, 3rd, 1:52.26) and the men's 400 medley relay (2nd, 3:19.27).
The Pirates will be back in the pool for Day 2 of the CCCAA State Swim/Dive Championships on Friday at ELAC (finals begin at 4:30 p.m.), with Day 3 set for Saturday (finals begin at 4 p.m.).
