Sierra dynasty at 5 State Swim men's titles In a row; Mt. SAC yet another first-time women's champion

Saturday Results l Complete Meet Results l Photos

SANTA ROSA -- The glory, hardware and the records went to American River College, but it was fellow Big 8 Conference foe Sierra that extended its dynasty to now five consecutive men's team championships at the 2025 3C2A State Swimming and Diving Championships completed on Saturday.

The Wolverines won a super close race to the by nine points, 443-434 over ARC, a program that collected 10 event victories to just one by Sierra, the 800-yard freestyle title thanks to the speedy foursome of Brock Sippola, Rhett Wildenradt, Tyler Natrass, and Troy Quintana. Making it a 3-team race, Mt. San Antonio wasn't far behind in third place at 417.

The women's championship went to a remarkable third straight diffferent first-time winner-Mt. San Antonio-as it followed 2023 champ Santa Monica and '24 champ Santa Barbara City to historical new achievements for their respective colleges in the sport.

The Mounties also won a close one by 16 to unseat defending champ SBCC, 440-424. Mt. SAC earned the South Coast Conference its first women's title in swimming in 25 years, but the first by one of the current SCC members ever.

Mt. SAC collected three golds in winning the 400 medley relay of Paige Fast, Spencer Damaske, Elleanna Ramos, and Carolyn Kao on day 1, the 200 medley relay with the same four swimmers on day 2 and then Ramos capturing the 200 butterfly crown on the final day.

Over the 3-day meet, the Santa Rosa Junior College pool produced an impressive 12 state meet records with American River's David Tsypan (200 backstroke), Riverside City's Zeke Serrano (first men's 100 individual medley champ), and El Camino women's swimmer Iyanah Samayoa (200 breaststroke) making their marks on the final day.

American River's men settled for the runner-up team trophy but it was Cayden Pitzer putting on a performance for the ages as he set state meet records in two individual events and two medley relays and finished as part of seven total event champions.

On the men's side, nine different schools won events while eight did so on the women's side where all of them winning at least two each and Santa Barbara leading the gold medal parade with six. 

Mt. SAC head coach Chris Jackson talked about the historical perspective for his program's accomplishment. "We thought maybe we can finish in the top three, but to win it was just phenomenal. It was the first relay wins for the program and our first state title. We had the focus and the depth and the swimmers were just locked in."

Sierra head coach Chris Breitbart said, "This was tough. That was probably the deepest state competition wise we've ever faced. American River was good, Mt. SAC was good and there are just a number of great swimmers in the State of California right now. We got a culture at Sierra where guys come for business and at the end of the day they just want to be better athletes."

REMARKABLE TWIST OF FATE IN WOMEN'S DIVING

Ciera Center, LA Valley's double state meet record diving champion on the 1 and 3-meter boards, breaks the records of her Monarchs' diving coach Amy Crayne, who set both points marks six years ago. While Crayne coached her student-athlete to shatter her previous records, she gets the distinction of being both a 3C2A diving double champion and Diving Coach of the Meet.

FINAL STANDINGS
MEN--1. Sierra 443, 2. American River 434, 3. Mt. San Antonio 417, 4. Orange Coast 379.5, 5. Riverside CC 324, 6. Cuesta 224, 7. Bakersfield 221, 8. Diablo Valley 220.5, 9. Golden West 211, 10. Ohlone 134.
WOMEN--1. Mt. San Antonio 440, 2. Santa Barbara CC 424, 3. American River 305, T4. Diablo Valley, Sierra 270, 6. Santa Rosa JC 245, 7. Orange Coast 236, 8. Long Beach CC 207, 9. San Joaquin Delta 175, 10. San Diego Mesa 170. 

3C2A STATE MEET AWARD WINNERS
WOMEN'S SWIMMER OF THE MEET: Lily Carrick, Santa Barbara, 3-event champion, 400 IM, 500 Freestyle, 1,650 Freestyle
TRI-MEN'S SWIMMERS OF THE MEET: Grant Huston, Cuesta, David Tsypan, American River, Cayden Pitzer, American River (all 3-event champions)
WOMEN'S COACH OF THE MEET: Chris Jackson, Mt. San Antonio 
MEN'S COACH OF THE MEET: Eric Black, American River (state team runner-up, 10 event victories)
WOMEN'S DIVER OF THE MEET: Ciera Center, LA Valley, 1 and 3-meter diving/state meet record champion 
MEN'S DIVER OF THE MEET: Ben Lentz, Marin, 1 and 3-meter diving champion
WOMEN'S DIVING COACH OF THE MEET: Amy Crayne, LA Valley
MEN'S DIVING COACH OF THE MEET: Denis Bondarenko, Marin
WOMEN'S PERFORMANCE OF THE MEET: Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino, 200 breastroke state meet record (see capsules below).
MEN'S PERFORMANCE OF THE MEET: Cayden Pitzer, American River, 100 breaststroke state meet record (52.98).

Saturday, May 3
Event 29-W-1,650 Freestyle: Champion-Lily Carrick, Santa Barbara, 17:46.46, 2. Jane Lubiens, Sierra, 17:56.27, 3. Sophia Paez, Santa Barbara, 18:03.14. From Australia, Carrick went down under to dominate by lowering her best time by 12 seconds in capturing the mile gold. 
Event 30-M-1,650 Freestyle: Champion-Jack Painton, Mt. San Antonio, 15:53.60, 2. Ryan Novak, Golden West, 15:54.43, 3. Gavin McNeal, Orange Coast, 16:04.69. Painton and Novak were neck and neck at the opening half of the race, but Painton eventually appeared to have built a well enough lead thanks to his consistency on flip turns to distance himself. As pretold in the 3C2A preview for this meet, Novak though jetted his final few legs, including a storming 25.52 finale 50 but Painton hung on for the mile victory. 
Event 31-W-100 Individual Medley: Champion-Joyce Lin, De Anza, 58.85, 2. Maddie Myers, Santa Barbara, 59.48, 3. Madaleine West, Santa Barbara, 1:00.11. The return of the fast-paced, but skillful 100 IM for the first time in 11 years was a fun victory for Lin, who kept out in front and finished strong to defeat Myers by .63.
Event 32-M-100 Individual Medley: STATE MEET RECORD-Zeke Serrano, Riverside, 50.67, 2. Evan Lim, Orange Coast, 50.74, Lennon Franklin, Riverside 51.68. A first-time event on the men's side allowed RCC's Serrano to just beat OCC's Lim to the wall for the distinction of setting the initial standard for state records in the 100 IM.
Event 33-W-200 Backstroke: Champion-Noemi Bravo-Guzman, Allan Hancock, 2:01.70, 2. Mia Verwoest, American River, 2:05.19, 3. Olivia Badaracco, Ventura, 2:05.45.  Bravo-Guzman is a back-to-back champ in the longer backstroke as she went hard but missed out on the state record by .14 set by SBCC's Isabella Orlando in 2023. 
Event 34-M-200 Backstroke: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion: David Tsypan, American River, 1:44.75, 2. Jaiden Monroe, Ventura, 1:49.74, 3. John Branson, American River, 1:51.34. After his teammate Branson had the lead by the 100-yard mark out of the eighth lane, Tsypan went into after gear over the last 100 as he shatters the state record by .20 set by Diablo Valley's Brandon James in 2015. 
Event 35-W-100 Freestyle: Champion-Camille Seiley, Grossmont, 50.97, 2. Caitlin Wham, American River, 51.30, 3. Maddie Myers, Santa Barbara, 52.13. Wham had the lead late, but Seiley caught her in the final 15 yards to win the title and unseat last year's champion Myers, who took third. Seiley was last year's silver medalist but she collects the gold as a sophomore.
Event 36-M-100 Freestyle: Champion-Grant Huston, Cuesta, 44.26, 2. Cody Hart, Bakersfield, 44.34, 3. Yousef Nahali, Riverside, 44.61. Hart and Nahali were practically a dead heat at the 50 mark, but Huston pressed the go button and bolted a 22.91 final 50, .4 better than Hart to win his third gold of the meet.  
Event 37-W-200 Breaststroke: STATE MEET RECORD-Champion: Iyanah Samayoa, El Camino, 2:15.93, 2. Sydney Fortune, San Diego Mesa, 2:19.65, 3. Julia Reid, Saddleback, 2:24.98. Samayoa is a back-to-back champion in style as she breaks Mt. SAC's Ashley Tse's record of 2:17.50 set in 2018. The Warrior nearly shaved three seconds off her winning time of a year ago and was an outstanding 35.63 in the back 50 as she earns the women's top performance award of the 2025 meet. 
Event 38-M-200 Breaststroke: Champion-Cayden Pitzer, American River, 1:58.39, 2. Michael Hansen, Sierra, 1:59.12, 3. Michael Petersen, Pasadena City, 2:02.35. As advertised, Pitzer and Hansen battled it out as both broke the 2-minute mark with Pitzer just missing a third individual state meet record by only .03. 
Event 39-W-200 Butterfly: Champion-Elleanna Ramos, Mt. San Antonio, 2:06.74, 2. Maya Garcia-Hale, Grossmont, 2:10.46, 3. Nicole Robertson, Riverside, 2:20. While Garcia-Hale set a strong early pace, Ramos answered the call and picks up a key victory for the Mounties by 3.72 seconds. She won the silver as a freshman and tops that with the gold as a sophomore. 
Event 40-M-200 Butterfly: Champion-Nathaniel D'Aloisio, Long Beach, 1:48.63, 2. Genoa Nixon, Sierra, 1:49.45, 3. Zixi Xu, Chaffey, 1:51.38. D'Aloisio holds off Nixon to win the final individual event. 
Event 41-W-400 Freestyle Relay: Champion-Santa Barbara (Leah Rummelhoff, Sophia Paez, Lily Carrick, Maddie Myers), 3:30.73, 2. Mt. San Antonio, 3:38.28, 3. American River, 3:34.89. The Vaqueros won this final relay easily but Mt. SAC's second place sealed the deal for the team championship. 
Event 42-M-400 Freestyle Relay: Champion-American River (Cayden Pitzer, Gar Long, Josh Branson, David Tsypan), 3:01.06, 2. Riverside 3:01.99, 3. Orange Coast 3:04.35. It was a truly amazing meet for both Pitzer and Tsypan who were fittingly part of a final event victory in this relay. 

Release by Robert Lewis, CCCSIA/3C2A event writer