Pirates finish second overall at OEC Meet
MISSION VIEJO -- It was a solid performance for the Orange Coast College women's swim team on Friday, as the Pirates finished in second place overall at the first Orange Empire Conference Meet of the 2024 season, hosted by Saddleback College.
Freshman Gia Cadiz had herself a successful day in the water as she earned a pair of relay wins (with Kiley Kawai, Paige Woodside and Rylie Fox) as well as individual wins in both backstroke events. Her strong performances helped Coast earn a runner-up team score of 512 points, just behind Riverside City College's total of 545. Saddleback finished third with 327 points, followed by Golden West (321), Cypress (221) and Fullerton (132).
The aforementioned relay wins came for Coast in the 200 free relay with a winning time of 1:43.94 (nearly seven seconds after than runner-up RCC at 1:50.41) as well as the 200 medley relay with a winning time of 1:59.32.
Cadiz took the top spot in the 100 backstroke with a winning time of 1:04.47, then followed that up with a winning time of 2:20.96 in the 200 back.
Woodside also earned a pair of individual wins, touching the wall first in both the 100 butterfly (1:04.31) and the 100 free (56.87).
Fox showed who was the fastest in the pool by taking first in the 50 free with a time of 26.22.
Distance swimmer Maya Abu-Salem left the other swimmers in her wake during the 500 free, winning by more than seven seconds with a time of 5:45.67.
Other top-three times were turned in by Kawai in the 50 free (2nd, 26.42), the 100 back (2nd, 1:05.18) and 200 back (2nd, 2:22.81), Cadiz in the 200 IM (2nd, 2:23.59), Woodside in the 200 IM (3rd, 2:23.71) and Fox in the 100 back (3rd, 1:07.01) and 100 free (3rd, 59.09).
Coast will return to action this weekend at the RCC Invitational -- hosted by Riverside City College -- beginning on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
