Medley relay breaks state meet record for Pirates
MONTEREY PARK -- Another day, another record-setting performance for the Orange Coast College men's swim team as they compete in this weekend's California Community College Athletic Association State Swim/Dive Championships, hosted by East L.A. College.
The Pirates -- who are in second place with 347 points after two days of competition -- earned one individual and one relay state title on Friday, led by sophomore standout Ethan Smith.
Smith further etched his name in the state record books when he joined Tatsuki Inoue, Matthew Simpson and Dane Howell on the 200 medley relay. In that race, the Pirates wiped out an 11-year-old state meet record and touched the wall first with a time of 1:29.79, a full .20 faster than the previous state best, held by Santa Rosa Junior College. Coast was slightly behind after the first two legs before Smith's strong effort put the Pirates in front and from there, Howell blistered the field with an amazing final 50 yards of swimming to keep Coast in front for good.
In the 100 butterfly, Smith added to his state title collection by successfully defending his state title with a time of 47.5. It wasn't as fast as his championship time in 2022, but it wasn't required as the Pirate sophomore finished nearly a full second ahead of runner-up Eric Yeh of Mt. San Antonio (48.56).
Coast had a pair of state runner-up times, with Simpson taking the silver medal in the 400 individual medley (3:59.54) and Inoue placing second in the 100 backstroke (48.93) for the second year in a row.
In the 800 free relay, the foursome of Inoue, Simpson, Jacob Muller and Mason Parker wrapped up the silver medal with a solid time of 6:49.72. Parker added a top-five performance on Friday by finishing fourth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:42.25.
Sierra College leads the State Meet after two days with a team score of 483 points. Las Positas (206.5), Mt. SAC (201.5) and Palomar (188) round out the top five team scores with one day of competition left to go.
