Women's Team Title Up For Grabs At Swim Championships; Men Could Be a Repeat For GWC
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History has a way of repeating itself in the world of California Community College swimming. The 2014 CCCAA Swimming and Diving State Championship figures to be a tight, four-team battle on the women's side while 13-time state champion Golden West College is the clear favorite on the men's side.
Once again, the East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium indoor pool is the site for the '14 championships that run Thursday-Saturday, May 1-3. State records have been habit forming at ELAC where 22 records have been shattered in the last three seasons here.
In a psych scoring sheet created based on seed times coming into this meet, Orange Coast is a slight favorite in the women's competition, followed closely by Santa Rosa JC, Diablo Valley and defending champion Golden West. It's not a coincidence that in the 36-year history of the women's state meet, those four schools have won every team championship except in 1998 when Riverside won the title.
The men's psych predictor sheet showed defending champion Golden West a 157.5-point favorite, but its nearest competitor appears to be a new kid on the block in South Coast Conference champion Mt. San Antonio. Diablo Valley, Santa Rosa and Orange Coast figure to also finish high in the mix.
Here is a preview of some of the individual frontrunners and favorites coming into this CCCAA state meet:
ON THE MEN'S SIDE, potential state record challenges could be made in the 200-yard freestyle relay as Orange Coast's current seed mark of 1:22.26 is just .06 off Santa Rosa's state record in 2011 while Golden West isn't far behind at a 1:22.82 seed...; in the 200 individual medley and 400 IM, Golden West's Gabriel Hernandez is poised to challenge the state records. In the 400 IM, his seed time is .78 of a second behind 2001 record holder Diego Yabe. For more drama on the 400 IM, throw in returning champion Jonathan Diaz of El Camino, who just happened to earn 2013 Men's Performance of the Meet for his win at 3:59.63, and returning runner-up and Golden West stalwart Daniel Roa...; in the 3-meter board diving as Saddleback's Jacob Swansen scored off the charts (542.85 points) while the current state record is held by Eddie Kollar in 2011 (340.6)...; in the 100 breastroke, SMC's Jia Ng could very well break the mark of another SMC swimmer Jeff Lum (54.48 at 2012 meet) as his seed is 54.05. Ng is also in position to shatter Lum's 200 breaststroke record (1:59.35) if he can reach his 1:59.22 seed...; in the 1-meter diving, the state record has fallen in each of the last three seasons and Riverside's Mauldin James is a candidate to be the fourth new record holder...; The 50 freestyle will be a free-for-all as Ng, Golden West's Dylan Alba, and Santa Rosa's John Bing are separated by .05 of a second as the top three seeds...; The 100 butterfly should be a nailbiter with Sierra's Eric Maginnis and Ventura's Nick Vallejo leading the seeds...; Andrew Hargis of Bakersfield is the top seed in the 500 freestyle and Diablo Valley's Evan Augst tops the seeds in the 1,650 freestyle.
ON THE WOMEN'S SIDE, the 100 IM record set just last year by Santa Rosa's Alexandria Holland (57.67) is possibly in reach for Golden West's Melissa Bergesen (58.95)...; GWC's Lauren Vosseler (23.62) will go after the 50 freestyle record (23.24 by Kimberly Bierwith) as could Cuesta's Racheal Gruetzmacher (23.86)...; the 400 medley relay has two top seeds, Golden West (3:52.08) and Diablo Valley (3:52.53) with faster times than the current state record of 3:52.76 set by SRJC in 2009...; DVC is in position to break last year's 200 medley relay record set by GWC (1:46.08 including then freshmen Bergesen and Vosseler) as its seed mark is 1:45.70...; Diablo Valley's Kelsey Leonard needs to meet her seed of 1:49.78 to capture the 200 freestyle record (1:50.34, Anne Scott). Leonard is in reach of the 100 butterfly record as well (her 55.82 seed not far from the state record of 55.54).; In the 50 breaststroke, DVC's Allison Gargalikis (28.49) and GWC's Brigitta Games (29.23) already have faster times than last year's state
record of 29.43 set by DVC's Shaila Yoder...; The 50 backstroke record is also in jeopardy with Santa Rosa's Miranda Howell (26.54) and Ashley Boyle (26.69) along with Vosseler (26.91) all challenging the 2003 standard of Sherry Tsai (26.08)...; It should be a show in the 3-meter diving with defending champ Aimee Bruns (Riverside), top seed diver Rae Adams (Orange Coast, third in 2013 state meet), and OCC's Candis Buck all with an opportunity to break a state record...; Vosseler is expected to be a repeat champ in the 100 freestyle where she was just .04 off the state record (50.36) last year and is this year's top seed (50.77)...; In the 100 breaststroke, it should be another Alydar v. Affirmed type race in the form of Gargalikis (1:01.85) and Games (1:02.19) who again have faster marks than the current state record. (1:02.98). The two swimmers are also 1 and 2 seeds in the 50 butterfly...; Last year's state record swim by Golden West in the 400 freestyle relay (3:27.47) could be rewritten by the Rustlers who have a 3:27.51 seed...; Pasadena City's Shannon Cheung is the top seed in both the 1,650 freestyle and 200 IM and while her times don't challenge state records, she will try to give her school its first-ever state individual women's champion.
Release by Robert Lewis, CCCSIA, CCCAA Meet SID
Pool side contact number 818-679-1335