Pirates in second place after Day 1 of CCCAA State Meet
MONTEREY PARK -- The Orange Coast College men's swim team is going head-to-head with Northern California powerhouse, Sierra College and the Pirates aren't flinching after Day 1 of the California Community College Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at East Los Angeles College.
Led by a state-meet-record performance in the 400-meter medley relay, the Pirates currently sit in second place with 158 points, with Sierra College in front with 220 points. Las Positas is third with 107 points, followed by Palomar, Golden West and Mt. San Antonio, who each have 85 points.
The story of Day 1 came from the Pirates foursome of Tatsuki Inoue, Matthew Simpson, Ethan Smith and Mason Parker, who set the lone state meet record with an incredible time of 3 minutes, 17.4 seconds, breaking Diablo Valley's previous-best time by .16 of a second. The Pirates were slightly behind the Wolverines through the first two legs of the relay before Smith's 46.51 split in the butterfly put the Pirates ahead for good. From there, Parker took the freestyle leg and got to the wall ahead of Sierra's runner-up time of 3:19.48.
Smith wasn't done for the day as he repeated as state champ in the 50 freestyle with a time of 19.81, topping last year's state-best time by .36, nearly missing the state meet record by just .23.
In the 200 free relay, the Pirate foursome of Parker, Inoue, Smith and Dane Howell nearly pulled off the gold, but finished just behind Sierra (1:21.63) with a silver-medal time of 1:22.01.
Simpson earned the bronze in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:51.09.
Distance swimmer Brandon Sanmaniego capped off a solid 2023 season with a fifth-place state time in the 500 freestyle, touching the wall at 4:38.36, while diver Michael De La Garrigue placed 11th in 3-Meter diving with 161.50 points.
Day 2 of the CCCAA State Meet continues on Friday at ELAC.
