Pirates topple field at RCC Invitational
RIVERSIDE -- It was another dominating performance by the Orange Coast College men's swim team as the Pirates topped 1,000 points overall at the 2022 Riverside City College Invitational this past weekend.
With an incredible 15 first-place performances over the three-day event, Coast took home the top points spot with 1,178, well ahead of runner-up Golden West (723.5) and third-place Palomar (481).
One swimmer in particular -- Tatsuki Inoue -- set the pace from Day 1 and won five individual races and was a big part of several relay victories for the Pirates as well.
Tatsuki Inoue touched the wall first in the 200-yard individual medley (1:56.48), the 500 freestyle (4:46.75), the 100 backstroke (50.22), the 400 IM (4:12.43) and the 200 back (1:50.6). His 100-back win highlighted a 1-2-3 finish for the Pirates, with teammates Keita Inoue (54.35) and Mathew Simpson (54.46) close behind. The same was true in the 200 back, where he led a convoy of Pirate swimmers to a 1-2-3-4-5 finish, with teammates Simpson (1:51.61), Keita Inoue (1:58.61), Andrew Leong (1:59.74) and Javier Rodriguez (2:06.38) on his heels.
Another top performer for the Pirates came from Ethan Smith, who took home four first-place times. Smith showed off his speed by winning the 50 free (21.48), just ahead of teammate Dane Howell (21.68). From there, Smith also touched the wall first in the 200 fly (1:54.16 ... 13 seconds ahead of the field), the 100 fly (50.73) and the 100 free (47.0, just ahead of Howell's time of 47.82).
In the 200 breaststroke, Thomas Lemoncito led another Coast convoy to the finish line as the Pirates went 1-3-4-5 to the wall with Lemoncito's time of 2:12.93 topping the field.
Coast also swept all five relay events with a 1-2 finish in the 200 free relay (1:28.33 and 1:28.88) and the 400 medley relay (3:31.82 and 3:34.72). The Pirates also topped the other schools in the 800 free relay (7:14.72 ... 24 seconds ahead of everyone else), the 200 medley relay (1:37.9) and the 400 free relay (3:12.05).
OCC will return to the Riverside City College pool on Friday, March 25 for the second Orange Empire Conference meets on the schedule, which will kick off at 9:30 a.m.
