Pirate men earn state runner-up at 3C2A State Swim/Dive Championship; OCC women take 7th

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's and women's swim teams were proud hosts of this year's 3C2A Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving State Championships this past weekend and the Pirate men's team earned a state runner-up team finish, while the Pirate women placed seventh overall, capping off a busy, but fabulous weekend at the OCC Aquatics Pavilion.

The defending state champion Sierra College Wolverines came in with a stacked lineup on the men's side and they made it four titles in a row with 633.50 points, with the Pirates close behind with 523. It was a big drop to third place, where Mt. San Antonio tallied 318 points, followed by Riverside (248), Cuesta (236), El Camino (234), Golden West (229), Las Positas (199), American River (195) and Diablo Valley (178.50).

For the OCC women, the smaller volume of swimmers didn't diminish the quality as the Pirates placed seventh with 215 points. Santa Barbara captured its first state women's swim title with 460 points, with Santa Rosa (218.50) a distant second.

Freshman standout Gideon Stemmons wrapped up a remarkable first year with the Pirate swim program, earning six total medals for his performances as an individual as well as on OCC's relay teams. He finished with five gold medals and a bronze and he collected two of those gold ones on Saturday, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.43 seconds, just ahead of Sierra's Christopher Nihart's runner-up time of 45.17. Finally, in the 400 freestyle relay, Stemmons, along with Masa Araki, Ryan Xu and Mason Parker, the Pirates held off Riverside to take the title with a time of 3:01.33, with the Tigers second at 3:02.36. Coast picked up five state relay titles this weekend and currently hold the state meet record in ALL six relay events.

On the women's side, their 400 free relay foursome of Paige Woodside, Kiley Kawai, Gia Cadiz and Rylie Fox earned a hard-fought silver medal for their last race of the competition, touching the wall with a time of 3:36.83, edging out third-place El Camino's bronze time of 3:37.70.

Other Pirates who qualified for finals in their events included Woodside in the women's 100 freestyle (6th, 52.85), Parker in the men's 100 freestyle (7th, 46.02), Christian Perez in the men's 200 breaststroke (6th, 2:03.08) and Kevin Li in the men's 200 butterfly (5th, 1:52.54).