Eighteen Records Set At 15th Pasadena Swim Invitational
The 15th Pasadena Invitational provided a platform again to promote the Pasadena City College men's and women's swim teams program. The April 3-4 event at the Aquatic Center will be remembered for years to come for blowing up the meet's record book.
The 15th Invitational produced an incredible 18 new meet records (listed at bottom of release) and many new host pool standards in a weekend of fast swims. The women's events saw 11 meet records go down while the men's side totaled eight records.
The Lancers, who did not record a meet record, still performed well as the South Coast Conference dual champion women's team placed fifth out of 20 colleges in the team standings. The men's team finished eighth. Orange Coast was the women's team champion while Golden West captured the men's title. OCC picked up its sixth women's title in the last seven years.
It was the fourth straight year in which the PCC women placed fifth at its host invitational.
For the second straight year, Lancers sophomore Mohammad Esmaeilian won the meet's Crescendo award for the combined fastest time in the 50-yard, 100-yard, and 200-yard freestyle events. Esmaeilian finished second overall in the 100 (47.64), third in the 200 (1:44.21), tied for seventh in the 50 (21.83).
Samuel Sanchez placed third in both the 1,650 freestyle (17:04.65) and 500 free (4:48.15), and sixth in the 200 free (1:46.05).
On the women's side, Ariahn Givens finished third in the 200 freestyle (2:01.44), placed fifth in both the 50 free (25.07) and 100 free (55.33), and was sixth in the 500 free (5:28.62). Liza Echeverria took fourth in the 400 individual medley (4:53.52) and 200 breaststroke (2:37.72).
The Lancers women attempt to win their first SCC team championship crown since 2003 when they swim at the SCC Championships on April 16-18 at East Los Angeles College. (Note--the dual meet title is a separate award. In 2003, PCC won both the dual season and SCC Championships). Pasadena aquatics is directed by head coach Terry Stoddard.
Meet Records broken at the 15th Pasadena Invitational
1. Women's 200 freestyle relay--Golden West, 1:37.76
2. Men's 200 freestyle relay--Golden West, 1:24.53
3. Women's 200 individual medley (IM)--Rachelle Visser, Santa Barbara CC, 2:08.61*
4. Women's 50 freestyle--Laura Woods, Diablo Valley, 24.18
5. Women's 400 medley relay--Diablo Valley, 3:59.41*
6. Men's 400 medley relay--Golden West, 3:25.73*
7. Men's 200 medley relay--Golden West, 1:35.05
8. Women's 400 IM--Visser, Santa Barbara, 4:39.70*
9. Women's 100 backstroke--Madison Varisco, Golden West, 58.18*
10. Men's 100 backstroke--Brandon James, Diablo Valley, 49.77*
11. Women's 800 freestyle relay--Golden West, 7:59.65
12. Men's 800 freestyle relay--Golden West, 6:57.11
13. Women's 200 backstroke--Varisco, Golden West, 2:05.37*
14. Men's 200 backstroke--James, Diablo Valley, 1:47.03*
15. Women's 100 freestyle--Woods, Diablo Valley, 52.16
16. Women's 200 breaststroke--Yingfei Zhang, East Los Angeles, 2:29.11*
17. Women's 400 freestyle relay--Golden West, 3:36.73*
18. Men's 400 freestyle relay--Golden West, 3:07.63
*--PCC Aquatic Center pool record