Pirate women win state title; OCC men take state runner-up!

MONTEREY PARK -- The powerhouse Orange Coast College women's swim team picked up right from it left off in 2019 by topping the field to win its third consecutive state title on Saturday at the 2022 California Community College Athletic Association State Swim/Dive Championships at East Los Angeles College.

On the men's side, the Pirates went up against an inspired Sierra team (573 points) and came up just short of the team title, but earned a well-deserved second spot with 449 points, followed by Cuesta (340), American River (268.50), Golden West (241), Diablo Valley (238), Palomar (195), College of the Sequoias (161.50), West Valley (144) and Mt. San Antonio (142).

OCC standout Ethan Smith shared this year's Men's Swimmer of the Year honor with Sierra's Jake Reuter, who both won three individual gold medals for the meet. Smith took first in the 50 freestyle, the 100 butterfly and the 200 butterfly, while Reuter won the 200 IM, the 400 IM and the 200 breaststroke.

Smith's third title came on Saturday in the 200 fly (1:46.78), where he challenged the state meet record of Tom Zafares (2006, Cabrillo), but came short by just over one second. Sierra's Aidan Thompson was a distant second with a time of 1:51.03.

While there were eight finalists in the pool for the men's 200 backstroke, it was a two-swimmer battle to the finish between OCC's Tatsuki Inouye and his teammate, fellow Pirate Matthew Simpson. It was neck and neck heading into the final 50 yards, where Inoue managed to pull away from Simpson and took the gold with a time of 1:47.61, just ahead of Simpon's silver medal time of 1:49.17.

Inoue, Simpson and Smith joined Andrew Leong to cap off OCC's strong weekend of competition with a state title in the 400 free relay, edging out Sierra with a winning time of 3:00.93. It was the second-fastest time in State Meet history, missing the record by just .31 of a second. It was a battle to the end before Smith blew away the field with a 44.47 anchor leg to preserve OCC's win.

For the OCC women -- champions in 2018 and 2019 (an no championships in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID pandemic) -- the Pirates collected state women's swim state crown No. 21 in their illustrious history, while providing Orange Coast College with its 96th state title as the school continues its quest to become the first California Community College with 100 state/national titles. 

Coast lapped the pool with the rest of the state and won the meet with a team score of 469 points, with Sierra College a distant second at 327.50 points. Cuesta (224) finished third, followed by Long Beach (203), Santa Barbara (200), Diablo Valley (189), San Diego Mesa (185), San Joaquin Delta (164), Riverside (160) and Santa Monica (160).

"First, we are in a great area for swimming," he said. "But I think one of the keys is to get to know your athletes. By understanding what makes a kid tick, it helps as a coach to motivate them and inspire them to be better. You look around the state, and you find that some of the most successful coaches have been at their schools for quite a while. I've been an assistant since 2004 at OCC, but I didn't truly take over our women's program until 2011.

"We have some kids this year who a few were with us in 2020. One of the challenges we had was to re-engage the swimmers to commitment to team and to the college environment. For many, we had a lot of zooms back then. We just had to get them back in the pool."

The Pirates were led by Giselle Quinonez, who scored event wins in the 500-freestyle and 1,650 freestyle, and four relay titles out of a possible five overall. 

Quinonez began Saturday's third day of competition with the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle and the freshman dominated the field with a winning time of 18:05.32, over 34 seconds faster than the state runner-up, Faith Tan of Sacramento City (18:39.51). Showing consistency throughout the race, her opening leg (30.8) was only a fraction faster than her final leg (33.06). 

OCC's other women's title came in the final event of the evening, the 400 freestyle relay, where Quinonez joined Sude Yilmazturk, Delaney Lewellyn and Journey Weaver and the Pirates took home the gold with a winning time of 3:37.39, followed by Sierra (3:40.15) and Cuesta (3:41.18). After trailing after the opening 100 yards, Quinonez put the Pirates in front for good with the fastest leg at 51.85 from the No. 2 spot.