Carrick's 400 IM Record helps SBCC extend women lead; Sierra still tops men on Day 2 of State Swim

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COSTA MESA - Sierra College continues to show why the Wolverines won state last year and appears to be on that way again after a strong performance on Day 2 of the 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championships, held Friday at the Orange Coast College Aquatics Pavilion.

With one day left to go, the Wolverines and runner-up Orange Coast are well out in front of the pack, with Sierra (439.5 points) holding a 70.5-point lead on the host Pirates.

On the women's side, Santa Barbara City College also is rolling well with 322 points, well clear of second-place Santa Rosa Junior College's 205.5 points.

SBCC is trying to become the second straight state champ from the Western State Conference and just the eighth different college to ever win a state team title. 

One state record was conquered during Friday's action and that came in the women's 400-yard individual medley, where SBCC's Lily Carrick nearly shaved off a full second off the previous record with a time of 4:29.59.

On the men's side, Sierra picked up four state event titles and continued to rack up points throughout the finals session.

WOMEN'S STANDINGS: 1. Santa Barbara 322, 2. Santa Rosa 205.5, 3. Long Beach 186, 4. El Camino 176, 5. West Valley 165, 6. Sierra 157, T-7. Orange Coast 152, T-7 Mt. San Antonio 152, 9. Foothill 126.5, 10. Diablo Valley 119.

MEN'S STANDINGS: 1. Sierra 439.5, 2. Orange Coast 369, 3. Mt. San Antonio 209, T-4 El Camino 176, T-4 Cuesta 176, 6. Riverside 173, 7. Golden West 148.5, 8. Las Positas 144, 9. American River 140, 10. Diablo Valley 130.5.

Here is an event-by-event recap:

FRIDAY, MAY 3

Event #13: W-200 medley relay: Champion-- Santa Barbara (Erin Otsuki, Lila Waechter, Lily Carrick, Maddie Myers), 1:49.00, 2. West Valley, 1:49.50, 3. El Camino, 1:49.81. After not earning a top-8 seed, the Vaqueros shrugged it all off and proceeded to win the state title from the opening race, shaving over four seconds from their seed time of 1:53.68. Myers' freestyle leg of 24.65 helped give SBCC a half-second edge on the field, as did Otsuki's 26.86 backstroke. WVC used a strong freestyle leg from Hannah Edwards to out-touch ECC at the wall for silver.

Event #14: M-200 medley relay: Champion— Orange Coast (Gideon Stemmons, Christian Perez, Ryan Xu, Mason Parker), 1:30.22, 2. Sierra, 1:30.34, 3. Cuesta, 1:30.77. While it wasn't a state-record pace, the Pirates still were the best squad in the race and in the state as they fought off a strong last Sierra push in the freestyle to win by just .12 seconds. An incredible 19.28 final leg from Nihart sparked the Wolverines late push, but leading legs from the first three OCC swimmers proved to be too much to overcome.

Event #15: W-400 individual medley: Champion—STATE RECORD – Lily Carrick, Santa Barbara, 4:29.59, 2. Noemi Bravo-Guzman, Allan Hancock, 4:35.01, 3. Emma Marsalek, Allan Hancock, 4:45.86. Carrick definitely found a gear that has never beenseen at this level, winning the state 400 IM title with a state-record performance. She topped the previous time of 4:30.49, set by El Camino's Ide Due back in 2019. Carrick turned up the jets in the butterfly, then, pulled away from everyone with a 28.73 final freestyle leg. Bravo-Guzman, who led for most of the race, settled for the silver.

Event #16: M-400 individual medley: Champion— Zachary Zauhar-Kurr, Las Positas, 3:56.31, 2. Greyson Davies, Grossmont, 3:59.9, 3. Fin Kircher, El Camino, 4:03.73. The highly anticipated battle between Zauhar-Kerr and Davies did not disappoint. Davies carried a slight lead into the breaststroke, but Zauhar-Kurr took over from there, setting the pace with a 65.68 breaststroke split to grab a multi-second lead. From there Thursday's bronze medalist in the 100 IM became the gold medalist in the 200 IM by over 3 seconds over Davies and seven seconds over Kirchner.

Event #17: W-100 butterfly: Champion— Ema Klimauskas, Santa Monica, 55.60, 2. Elleanna Ramos, Mt. San Antonio, 57.24, 3. Sonia Kahn, Foothill, 58.73. A VERY fast field of swimmers saw the wake of Klimauskas, a 2023-champion for SMCC a year go as her 26.03 opening split proved to be too much to overcome. Ramos put up a solid fight, but finished nearly 2 seconds behind Kilmauskas, with Kahn picking up the bronze. Five of the eight swimmers in the final broke the one-minute mark.

Event #18: M-100 butterfly: Champion— Genoa Nixon, Sierra, 49.51, 2. Ryan Xu, Orange Coast, 49.81, 3. Aiden Morris, Orange Coast, 49.93. It was a battle to the wire between all eight swimmers, with Nixon using a scorching 26.53 to pull ahead of Sierra teammate Aidan Thompson, who finished fifth overall. Solid performances down the stretch by a pair of OCC Pirates, with Xu taking the silver and Morris earning the bronze after both jumping ahead of a pair of swimmers over the final 50 yards.

Event #19: W-200 freestyle: Champion— Mia Park, El Camino, 1:50.71, 2. Maddie Myers, Santa Barbara, 1:52.69, 3. Caroline Oates, Santa Barbara, 1:54.10. OCC is looking at renaming aquatics pavilion "Park Place" after another impressive performance by the multi-time state champion. Park led at every wall touch and in the final 50 yards, picked up her pace and barely missed the state meet record by just over a half-second. Myers have Park a good fight for the race and picked up a well-deserved silver, with SBCC teammate, Oates, earning the bronze.

Event #20: M-200 freestyle: Champion— Troy Quintana, Sierra, 1:38.08, 2. Cody Hart, 1:40.7, Zekiah Serrano, Riverside, 1:40.98. The favorite coming into the race, Quintana, Thursday's 500-free champion, took care of business in the state finals and cruised to victory over the rest of the field. Making it look effortless, Quintana picked up his speed over the final two 25s to top the field by over 2 seconds ahead of Hart and nearly 3 seconds ahead of Serrano.

Event #21: W-100 breaststroke: Champion— Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino, 1:04.09, 2. Madeleine West, Santa Rosa, 1:04.79, 3. Samantha Fehr, Las Positas, 1:05.93. Gold Medal #2 was earned by Samayoa, who, after winning the 200 IM on Thursday, used a strong 33.51 final 50 yards to edge West out by .7 seconds. West put up a strong fight and tried a last push over the final few strokes but came up just short. Fehr shaved off a full second off of her prelims time and earned the bronze.

Event #22: M-100 breaststroke: Champion— Deklan Heinzen, Sierra, 54.38, 2. Cayden Pitzer, American River, 54.75, 3. Michael Hansen, Sierra, 55.25. The Wolverines picked up some bonus points in this race as Heinzen came out of Lane 6 to upset some of the faster prelim times and earn the gold medal. Heinzen blasted off of the blocks and posted a 25.46 opening split to grab the lead and despite a strong final 50 from Pitzer, the Wolverine freshman held off the top qualifier for the gold. Heinzen's 54.38 was 90 seconds faster than his prelim time of 56.08.

Event #23: W-100 backstroke: Champion-- Lilliana Noriega, L.A. Valley, 57.19, 2. Mia Verwoest, American River, 57.25, 3. Olivia Kahn, Foothill, 58.34. By a literal blink of an eye, Noriega earned her state title in a battle that came down to the final reach of the wall. Noriega, the fastest qualifier in the race by over a second, saw competition come out of Lane 5 as Verwoest put on a furious push to the finish. But by the smallest of fractions, it was Noriega who earned the gold by just .06. Kahn earned the bronze by getting to the wall just ahead of SBCC's Erin Otsuki by .35.

Event #24: M-100 backstroke: Champion— 1. Eric Yeh, Mt. San Antonio, 49.92, 2. Andrew Morris, Santa Rosa, 50.32, Gideon Stemmons, Orange Coast, 50.51. Sometimes, it's not the stroke, but the turn and for Yeh, a spectacular final turn for home pushed the Mountie sophomore ahead for good as he pulled away for a .40 second win over Morris and prelim leader, Stemmons, who earned his fourth medal of the State Meet (3 golds, 1 bronze) with his backstroke performance.

Event #25: W-800 freestyle relay: Champion— 1. Santa Barbara (Addie Lane, Sofia Paez, Caroline Oates, Erin Otsuki), 7:51.79, 2. Long Beach, 8:02.65, Diablo Valley, 8:03.68. Fellow SID Robert Lewis claimed that "anything can happen in a relay" when it came to the overwhelming favorite, Santa Barbara City College. But, in this case, there were absolutely NO surprises as the Vaqueros used a dominating third leg from Oates and carried that into nearly an 11-second win over Long Beach and topped bronze medalist Diablo Valley by just under 13 seconds.

Event #26: M-800 freestyle relay: Champion— Sierra (Aidan Thompson, Brock Sippola, Tyler Natrass, Troy Quintana), 6:45.18, 2. Golden West, 6:50.40, 3. Orange Coast, 6:51.13. Leave to the front-running Wolverines to crash the "OEC Party" in the final event on Day 2 as an impressive early start by Sierra proved to be more than enough to hang on to a convincing win over the runner-up Rustlers and the third-place Pirates. Sippola's 200-yard second leg helped propel the Wolverines in front and when Quintana is your anchor and you have the lead, life in the pool, all is right with the world.

Event #27: W-3-meter board: Champion— Rachel Choi, American River, 241.65, 2. Aubrey Watts, American River, 227.05, 3. Megan Gornall, Palomar, 215.35. Another solid day of diving for the best of the best as American River's Rachel Choi swept the diving events, winning the 3-meter high board with 241.65 points, well ahead of ARC teammate Aubry Watts, 227.05. Gronwall, who had a season-best 242.75 entering the state finals, finished third, while SoCal champion, Kathleen Juarez (Long Beach) finished fourth. 

Event #28: M-1-meter board: Champion—Easton Farmer, Sequoias, 243.25, 2. Ayden Jacobus, Ventura, 230.65, 3. Jonah Grove, Sierra, 199.95. Following a fifth-place finish in state a year ago, Farmer stepped up and nailed his dives when it counted most, taking home the gold medal on the 1-meter board by 13 points over last year's sixth-place finisher, Jacobus, who earned the silver. Grove, who was the only other diver over 200 points this season, just missed that mark, but still earned the bronze with room to spare.

(Release by Tony Altobelli, 3C2A State Swim Meet SID)