OCC women second, Pirate men third at OEC Championships

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's and women's swim teams posted solid times throughout the 2021 Orange Empire Conference Swim Championships, hosted by OCC on Friday at the Pirate Aquatics Pavilion.

Led by three individual wins from Journey Weaver, the Pirate women finished runner-up at the meet with 457 points, while the OCC men finished third overall with 256 points. Complete Results of Friday's finals can be found HERE. 

Weaver started her journey with a gold-medal performance in the 200-yard freestyle, touching the wall first with a winning time of 1 minute, 57.63 seconds. From there, she took home the gold in the 100 free (53.87) as well as the 100 backstroke (1:00.4), where she led a 1-2-3 finish by the Pirates with Delaney Lewellyn (1:03.78) and Alaire Thomas (1:04.28). Weaver a nd Lewellyn were also on OCC's victorious 400 free relay squad, along with Sarah Maver and Kayla Yamamoto, who capped off their season with a championship-winning time of 3:48.26.

Maver also took the top time in the 50 free with a time of 24.87 and she also finished runner-up in the 100 free with a time of 55.09. 

Thomas earned her own gold medal in the 100 butterfly with a winning time of 1:03.87. She also joined Yuuri Yoshikawa, Sude Yilmazturn and Alexandra Arriero for the OEC-best 200 medley relay (30.53).

On the men's side, OCC's Luke Venzlaff capped off the top individual performances for the Pirates by setting a new conference record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 48.95 seconds. 

Venzlaff's top time in the fly was just one of several strong performances turned in by the Pirate freshman, who also helped Coast win three relays on Friday as well. He was third leg of OCC's 200 medley relay, joining Arnaud Parmentier, Jakob Otte and Dane Howell for a winning time of 1:36.37.

Venzlaff then led off OCC's 200 free relay, joining Howell, Caden Martin and Matthew Ray for a championship time of 1:28.21. Venzlaff wrapped up the meet by leading off in the 400 free relay, where he, Howell, Ray and Parmentier set the pace and won with a OEC-best time of 3:13.17.

Parmentier, a standout water polo player for the Pirates who will attend Ottawa University in Arizona in the fall, captured the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.41.

In one of the closest races of the finals, OCC's Jakob Otte edged out GWC's Marcus Dalva to win the 100 breastroke with a winning time of 1:00.17, just ahead of Dalva's time of 1:00.81.