Pirates take second at CCCAA Championships; Smith earns Swimmer of the Year honors
MONTEREY PARK -- The Orange Coast College men's swim/dive team -- led by State Swimmer of the Year, Ethan Smith -- wrapped up an incredible 2023 season with a state runner-up finish at the California Community College Athletic Association Swimming/Diving State Championships on Saturday at East Los Angeles College.
The Pirates took on the best of the best for three days and finished second overall behind a powerhouse Sierra program that finished with 712 points. Coast (502) earned the silver, while Mt. San Antonio (316.5) placed third overall.
But the story for the entire weekend and beyond was the accomplishments of Smith, who earned State Meet Men's Swimmer of the Year for the second year in a row. For his two-year career at OCC, Smith saved his best performances for the biggest stage, winning a total of SIX individual state titles as well as several others for Pirate relay teams.
Smith might have saved his best performances for Saturday's competition as he shattered the 200-yard butterfly state meet record by touching the wall first with a time of 1 minute, 44.45 seconds, topping the 17-year-old previous record by 1.19 seconds. A strong opening split (23.03) and a strong finishing split (28.25) proved to be the difference for Smith as he further added to the CCCAA record books.
In his last event as a Pirate, he was the lead leg in the 400-freestyle relay and the sophomore standout didn't disappoint. His opening 100-yard split time was a state record at 43.58, topping Brandon Crabtree's previous fastest split of 43.83 set in 2018. His strong start helped Dane Howell, Matthew Simpson and Mason Parker break the state meet record with a championship time of 2:59.94, becoming the first team to ever break 3 minutes in state meet history.
Joining Smith atop the podium on Saturday was teammate Tatsuki Inoue, who captured the 200 backstroke title for the second year in a row with a time of 1:45.99. Simpson repeated as the state runner up with a 1:48.12, while Sierra's Evan Terry earned the bronze for the second year in a row with a time of 1:48.14. All three swimmers improved on their 2022 times, with Inoue shaving off 1.22 seconds of of last year's winning time, while Simpson came in 1.05 faster than '22.
Earning the bronze medal for the Pirates was distance swimmer Brandon Samaniego, who took on the top distance swimmers in the state and finished third in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 16:03.22.
Mason Parker earned a spot in the finals of the 100 freestyle and finished sixth overall with a time of 45.79.
